LIFE 

A  Study  of  iKe  Means  of  Restoring 
Vital  Energy  and  Prolon^In^  Life 

DR,  SERGE  VORQNOFF 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


LIFE 


LIFE 


A  Study  of  the  Means  of  Restoring1 
Vital  Energy  and  Prolonging  Life 


BY 
Dr.  SERGE  VORONOFF 

Director  of  Experimental  Surgery  at  the  Laboratory  of 
Physiology  of  the  College  de  France 

Translated  by 
EVELYN  BOSTWICK  VORONOFF 

Assistant  at  the  Laboratory  of  the  College  de  France 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright,  1920 
By  E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

All  Rights  Reserved 


Printtd  in  the  VnitrA  States  of  Atntrica 


V/5fi 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

IN  this  translation  of  my  husband's  Vivre,  I 
have  endeavored  to  present  in  English,  faith- 
fully and  accurately,  the  profound  creative 
thought  of  his  scientific  discoveries  for  restor- 
ing our  vital  energy  and  prolonging  the  life 
dear  to  all  of  us,  voiced  with  such  sincerity 
and  eloquence  in  his  original. 

It  is  a  book  whose  message  is  truely  "uni- 
versal," for  it  is  addressed  directly  to  every 
human  being  who  lives,  and  wishes  to  live,  in 
the  true  sense  of  the  word.  It  describes  the 
processes  of  renewal  of  the  worn-out  glandular 
cogs  and  wheels  of  our  body  in  order  that  its 
mechanism  shall  function  perfectly  at  a  time 
when  the  brain,  educated  to  a  point  where  its 
potentialities  of  useful  creative  work  are  at 
their  maximum,  undergoes  a  decay  of  physical 
stamina  threatening  its  powers  with  stagna- 


M373004 


vi    TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE 

tion.  And  this  epoch-making  discovery  is  told 
in  a  lucid,  readable  manner ;  there  is  no  veil  of 
technical  terminology  to  hide  its  inspiring 
truths  from  the  lay  reader. 

Dr.  Voronoff,  treading  in  the  footsteps  of 
that  great  Master  in  experimental  science, 
Claude  Bernard,  makes  clear  that  the  grafting 
of  glands  will,  in  the  future,  become  an  every- 
day procedure,  just  as  bone-grafting  grew  to 
be  a  common-place  of  surgical  practice  during 
the  recent  war.  He  shows  that,  as  a  conse- 
quence, human  life  may  be  extended  to  what 
should  be  its  normal  span  of  fruitful  activity, 
a  minimum  age  which  is  at  present  not  at- 
tained. Does  any  scientific  discovery  of  the 
ages  exceed  this  in  its  importance  to  the  in- 
dividual and  the  race? 

In  presenting  my  husband's  work  in  its 
English  guise,  I  wish  to  take  this  opportunity, 
on  his  behalf  and  on  my  own,  of  thanking  Mr. 
Barnet  J.  Beyer,  formerly  lecturer  at  the  Sor- 
bonne,  and  Mr.  F.  H.  Martens  for  their  splen- 
did aid  and  valuable  suggestions.  Our  thanks 
are  also  due  Professor  A.  Elwyn,  of  the  Col- 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE    vii 

lege  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Columbia 
University,  for  his  indispensable  assistance 
and  collaboration  in  translating  Professor 
Ketterer's  Communications  to  the  Paris  So- 
ciete  de  Biologic,  on  the  structure  and  evolu- 
tion of  the  grafted  tissues. 

EVELYS!  BOSTWICK  VORONOFF. 
New  York,  August  6,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

PAG* 

FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR xv 

CHAPTER 

I.  The  longevity  of  living  creatures  is  in  reverse  relation 
to  their  organic  perfection — The  longevity  of  the 
mammals,  in  whose  ladder  of  progression  man  stands 
on  the  topmost  rung,  is  in  direct  relation  to  the  duration 
of  the  period  of  growth  necessary  to  complete  bodily 
development — The  normal  life-span  of  man  should  be 
from  120  to  140  years — Mode  or  manner  of  life  exerts 

but  slight  influence  on  life  duration 1 

II.  Our  ignorance  of  the  origin  of  life  no  barrier  to  our  under- 
standing of  the  causes  of  death — The  immortality  of  the 
first  living  being,  the  primitive  cell — Death  appeared 
on  earth  only  as  a  consequence  of  the  association  of 
millions  of  cells  to  form  superior,  complicated  beings — 
The  specialization  of  the  cells  in  our  body  in  view  of  the 
very  individual  parts  they  play — The  inability  of  these 
specialized  cells  to  shift  for  themselves;  then*  inter- 
dependence— The  persistence  in  our  organism  of  the 
primitive,  non-specialized  cells  which  have  retained  the 
characteristics  of  the  first  cells  to  appear  on  earth  (the 
conjunctive  cells  and  the  white  blood  corpuscles) — 
The  struggle  between  the  primitive  and  the  specialized 
cells — Death  results  when  the  former  triumph — The 
victors  end  by  invading  the  place  occupied  by  the 
specialized  cells,  and,  incapable  of  performing  their 
duties,  disorganize  all  their  functions  and  arrest  life — 
A  study  of  various  lesions  established  by  the  autopsies 
of  all  aged  men,  and  which  justify  our  hypothesis  regard- 
ing the  true  cause  of  natural  death — Experimental 
proof  supplied  by  the  grafting  of  organs — Proofs  fur- 
nished by  men  and  animals  deprived  of  the  thyroid 

gland 12 

III.  Why  the  primitive  cells  persist  in  our  organism — Older 

ix 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAG» 

theories  anent  the  mechanism  of  life,  supposed  to 
iesult  from  a  first  impulsion  given  at  birth — The  new 
conception  which  explains  the  mechanism  of  life  by  the 
impulsions,  continually  renewed,  which  the  organs 
receive  from  certain  enclosed  (endochondral)  glands — 
The  relation  between  the  functioning  of  our  organs 
and  the  internal  secretions  of  the  glands:  thyroid,  pitu- 
itary, suprarenal,  etc. — Identity  of  the  secretions  of 
human  and  animal  glands — Effects  of  this  secretion  in 
connection  with  the  greater  or  lesser  perfection  of  the 
organs  on  which  it  acts 34 

IV.  Senility  as  the  result  of  the  gradual  destruction  of  our 
specialized  cells  by  primitive  cells  to  be  corrected 
by  increasing  the  vital  energy  of  the  specialized  cells — 
The  sex  gland  as  offering  a  marvelous  source  of  such 
energy — The  effect  produced  by  its  removal — A  study 
of  the  eunuch — A  study  of  the  old  men  whose  sex  gland 
continues  to  function,  and  of  those  in  whom  the  gland 
has  atrophied — Studies  of  men  of  genius  in  connection 
with  the  f  unctioning  of  the  sex  gland 49 

f  V.  The  experiments  of  Brown-Se"quard — The  failure  of  his 
method  is  due  to  defective  means  though  at  the  service 
of  the  right  idea — A  legend  of  the  Middle  Ages  regard- 
ing the  grafting  of  organs — The  grafting  of  a  young 
sex  gland,  in  full  activity,  means  incorporating  in  the 
organism  the  very  source  of  our  vital  energy — My  report 
to  the  28th  French  Surgical  Congress  on  the  grafting  of 
testicles — The  grafting  of  testicles  upon  normal  males, 
upon  castrated  males  and  upon  aged  senile  males — 
The  grafting  of  these  glands  upon  females — Disap- 
pearance of  the  infirmities  of  old  age — Restoration 
of  the  powers  and  rejuvenation  of  senile  animals — 
Prolongation  of  their  life — Remote  results  of  testicular 
grafting — The  possibility  of  securing  these  glands  from 
men  killed  by  accident  or  from  executed  criminals — 
The  need  of  making  legislation  conform  to  the  actual 
progress  of  science 59 

VI.  The  possibility  of  borrowing  the  sex  gland  of  the  higher 
simians  in  order  to  graft  it  on  man — Man's  relation- 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTEB  PAGB 

ship  with  the  higher  anthropomorphous  simians — 
Resemblance  between  the  simian  and  the  human 
foetus — Identity  of  dentition  between  ape  and  man — • 
Analogies  between  skeletons,  skulls  and  internal 
organs— Blood-relationship — The  relationship  estab- 
lished by  the  fact  that  the  apes  enjoy  thefregrettable 
privilege  of  being  the  only  animals  who  contract  our 
diseases:  typhoid  fever,  syphilis,  etc. — Success  attend- 
ing the  grafting  of  the  thyroid  gland  of  the  ape  on  man — 
The  very  favorable  secondary  results  of  similar  graft- 
ings— The  far  more  pronounced  success  attending  the 
grafting  of  the  thyroid  gland  of  an  ape  on  a  man,  than 
produced  by  man  to  man  graft  of  this  gland — The  future 
of  grafting  simian  glands  on  man — Application  of  the 
same  method  to  intensify  female  life — Methods  for 
securing  their  esthetic  rejuvenation — The  drawbacks  of 
some  of  these  graftings  so  far  as  women  are  concerned — 
Effect  upon  the  organism  of  the  deprivation  of  the  in- 
ternal secretion  of  the  ovaries — The  grafting  of  youth- 
ful ovaries,  in  full  activity,  on  aged  women 88 

VII.  The  future  of  organic  grafting — The  grafting  of  bones, 
of  skin,  of  the  tendons,  of  the  nerves,  of  the  internal 
organs  and  of  the  glands — Effect  of  the  internal  secre- 
tion of  the  sex  gland  on  the  intellectual  faculties  and  the 
aptitude  for  work — The  great  services  which  may  be 
rendered  the  community  by  aged  persons,  rich  in 
acquired  experience  and  accumulated  knowledge,  owing 
to  the  graft  of  the  sex  gland — The  prolongation  of  life ...  119 

Communications  by  M.  Ed.  Retterer  to  the  French  Association  for 

the  Study  of  Cancer  and  to  the  Biological  Society 129 

METAPLASIA 131 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OP  THE  TESTICULAR  GRAFTS 

IN  THE  GOAT 136 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  TESTICULAB  GRAFTS  IN 

THE  RAM 142 

TESTICLES  OF  THE  AGED 148 

CONDITIONS  WHICH  CAUSE  VARIATION  IN  THE 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  TESTICULAR  EPITHELIUM —  154 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fio.    1. — PRIMITIVE  BEING,  AMCGBA Page  19 

Fia.    2. — VARIOUS  CELLULAR  FORMS ' '  22 

Fia.    3. — CONJUNCTIVE  CELLS Facing  page  24 

FIG.    4. — WHITE  BLOOD  CORPUSCLES Page  25 

Fia.    5. — YOUNG  PIG  THYROIDECTOMIZED Facing  Page  30 

FIG.    6. — THYROID  GLAND  OP  AN  ADULT  MAN "         "  39 

Fia.  7. — SKELETON  OP  A  SHEEP  THYROIDECTO- 
MIZED    ' '  '  *  40 

FIG.    8. — SUPRARENAL  GLAND "        "  41 

FIG.  9. — EFFECT  OP  THE  DESTRUCTION  OP  THE 
POSTERIOR  LOBE  OP  THE  PITUITARY 

GLAND "        "  43 

FIG.  10.— A  GIANT "        "  44 

FIG.  11.— A  DWARF "        "  45 

FIG.  12.— HUMAN  TESTICLE  (ADULT) "        "  66 

Fia.  13. — SHE-GOAT  ON  WHICH  THE  TESTICLES  OP 
A  YOUNG  HE-GOAT  HAVE  BEEN 

GRAFTED "        "  72 

Fia.  14.— SMALL  HE-GOAT,  No.  69 "        "  72 

Fia.  15. — SMALL  HE-GOAT,  No.  69,  FOUR  MONTHS 

AFTER  THE   GRAFT * '  * '        72 

FIG.  16 —YOUNG  HE-GOAT,  No.  17 "        "      72 

FIG.  17. — YOUNG   HE-GOAT,    No.  17,   ONE   YEAR 

AFTER  GRAFT "        "      72 

Fia.  18. — HE-GOAT    No.  15,    SIXTEEN    MONTHS 

AFTER  GRAFT "        "      72 

FIG.  19. — HE-GOAT  No.  15,  COMPLETELY  CAS- 
TRATED AT  THE  AGE  OP  Six  MONTHS, 
TESTICLES  TAKEN  PROM  ANOTHER 
YOUNG  BUCK  HAVING  BEEN  GRAFTED 

ON  HIM "        "      73 

FIG.  20.— CASTRATED  HE-GOAT  No.  15 "        "      73 

Fia.  21.— CASTRATED  HE-GOAT  No.  15 "        "      73 

xiii 


xiv     LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG.  22. — CASTRATED  HE-GOAT  No.  15 Facing  page    73 

FIG.  23.— CASTRATED  HE-GOAT  No.  15 "        "      73 

FIG.  24. — OLD  RAM,  No.  12,  BEFORE  GRAFTING...     "        "      75 
FIG.  25.— OLD    RAM,    No.  12,    A     YEAR     AFTER 

GRAFTING "        "      75 

FIG.  26.— OLD  RAM,  No.  14,  BEFORE  GRAFTING...     "        "      77 
FIG.  27.— OLD    RAM,    No.    14,     A    YEAR    AFTER 

GRAFTING "        "      77 

FIG  28 — JEAN  G.,  AGED  FOURTEEN  YEARS. 
PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN  THE  DAY  BEFORE 

THE  OPERATION "        "      98 

FIG.  29. — JEAN  G.,  A  YEAR  AFTER  THE  OPERA- 
TION   "  "  98 

FIG.  30. — GEORGES  P.,  AT  THE  AGE  OF  TWENTY. 
PHOTOGRAPH  TAKEN  ON  THE  DAY 

BEFORE  THE  OPERATION "        "    108 

FIG.  31^ GEORGES    P.,     A     YEAR     AFTER     THE 

OPERATION "        "    108 

FIG.  32.— Louis  R,.  BEFORE  THE  OPERATION "        "    121 

FIG.  33. — Louis  R.,   Two  MONTHS  AND  A  HALF  { 

AFTER  THE  OPERATION "        "    121 

FIG.  34.— YOUNG  GIRL  WITH  BURNED  FACE  AND 

HANDS "        "    122 

FIG.  35.— THE  SAME  YOUNG  GIRL  A  YEAR 
AFTER  THE  GRAFT  OF  FCBTAL  MEM- 
BRANES   "  "  122 

FIG.  36. — DOG,  No.  12,  FIFTEEN  MONTHS  AFTER 

OPERATION "  "  123 

FIG.  37. — PORTION  OF  A  GRAFTED  TESTICLE,  ONE 

YEAR  AFTER  THE  GRAFT "  ' '  132 

FIG.  38.— Two  BLIND  FOLLICLES "        "    133 

FIG.  39. — PORTION  OF  GOAT'S  TESTICLE,  Two 

MONTHS  AFTER  THE  GRAFT "  *'  134 


FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR 

DEATH  shocks  man  with  a  sense  of  the  cruel- 
lest injustice,  for  he  treasures  an  intimate 
memory  of  his  immortality.  Every  least  cell 
entering  into  his  composition  and  which,  in 
the  early  days  of  the  world's  creation,  formed 
an  integral  and  independent  being,  recalls  its 
indeterminate  and  eternal  life,  and  cries  out 
with  horror  at  the  prospect  of  death,  which  its 
association  with  other  cells  has  imposed  on  it. 
Even  now,  these  primitive  cells,  simple  ag- 
glomerations of  protoplasm,  never  die,  nor  do 
we  ever  find  their  corpses.  They  evolute  by 
division ;  yet  the  two  cells  born  of  the  mother- 
cell  exactly  contain  her  entire  substance.  In 
the  course  of  millions  of  years,  these  cells  have 
assembled  in  order  to  form  beings  increasingly 
complicated— from  the  simplest  of  animals, 
such  as  the  amoeba  to  such  a  superior  creature 
as  man— and  it  is  this  association,  whose  har- 

XV 


xvi     FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR 

mony  is  often  troubled,  which  has  entailed 
that  monstrous  and  abnormal  phenomenon, 
death. 

In  the  profoundest  deeps  of  his  conscious- 
ness, or  rather  subconsciousness,  man  under- 
stands life  only ;  since  he  was  created  for  life 
and  life  alone,  from  his  thoughts,  which  are 
immortal,  to  each  of  those  cells  which  have 
guarded  their  recollection  of  creation's  first 
intention. 

This  constant  conflict  between  instinct  to 
live  and  horror  of  dying  has  engendered  that 
profound  pessimism  afflicting  the  greatest 
thinkers,  which  mingles  wormwood  with  all 
our  joys.  It  is  the  same  instinct  which  in  all 
ages  has  instigated  passionate  quests  for  the 
elixir  that  would  allow  us  to  extend  the  limits 
of  existence  to  the  point  where  the  satiety  of 
long  life  would  finally  beckon  to  sleep  and  re- 
pose. 

Unfortunately,  all  attempts  of  the  sort  have 
invariably  remained  sterile.  And  this  is  not 
hard  to  understand.  How  could  one  find  a 
remedy  for  old  age  when  the  conditions  deter- 


FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR     xvii 

mining  it  were  unknown?  The  mechanism  of 
life  has  always  escaped  us,  and  we  do  not  know 
the  profound  causes  leading  fatally,  at  certain 
ages,  to  that  state  of  senility  which  ends  in 
death.  Research  always  has  been  concen- 
trated on  the  affections  which  determine 
lesions  incompatible  with  life ;  but  the  reason 
of  our  natural  death  has  remained  unknown  to 
us.  Pathological  death  we  are  acquainted 
with ;  of  physiological  death  we  are  ignorant. 
Research  in  this  direction  has  never  been  un- 
dertaken seriously,  because  of  the  precon- 
ceived idea  that  our  mind  is  helpless  as  re- 
gards the  discovery  of  nature's  secret,  the  rea- 
son of  life,  and  the  cause  of  death. 

This  scientific  dogma,  put  forth  by  the 
learned  men  of  all  ages,  barred  any  investiga- 
tion of  this  road,  and  no  one  dared  sacrilege  by 
raising  the  veil  Nature  had  flung  over  her  law 
of  universal,  objective  death.  Yet  every 
dogma  is  an  obstacle  to  progress,  and  must  be 
cleared  away  in  order  to  open  the  way  to  fruc- 
tifying thought.  The  physical  sciences  have 
given  us  examples :  the  flight  of  objects  heavier 


xviii     FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR 

than  air,  the  transmission  of  the  spoken  word 
—wireless  telephony— without  a  conductor, 
etc.  Does  biology,  the  science  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  life,  offer  us  similar  possibilities  ? 

It  is  unquestionable  that  the  intelligence 
grasps  physical  laws  more  easily  than  those  of 
living  nature.  The  analysis  of  the  rays  of  a 
star  millions  of  miles  away  from  our  globe, 
makes  it  possible  for  us  to  determine  its  com- 
position with  exactness,  and  to  know  all  the 
metals  constituting  it;  yet  the  phenomena 
which  take  place  in  ourselves  are  so  complex, 
they  offer  such  a  tangle  of  physico-chemical 
reactions  and  vital  manifestations— such  as 
thought,  will  power— that  we  experience  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  analyzing  them  and  in 
ascertaining  the  laws  which  govern  them.  In 
order  to  detect  and  discover,  not  the  mysteri- 
ous reason  for  life,  but  the  actual  cause  of  our 
death,  we  have  sought  to  penetrate  into  the  in- 
timate constitution  of  our  body,  to  understand 
the  part  played  by  the  various  cells  composing 
it ;  and  we  are  now  able  to  offer  the  intelligent 
public  the  results  of  our  researches. 


FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR      xix 

In  a  succeeding  work,  devoted  to  a  study  of 
the  cellular  commonwealth  of  our  body,  which 
will  be  published  under  the  title:  The  Re- 
public of  the  Human  Body,  we  shall  de- 
velop this  subject  in  all  the  detail  it  demands ; 
but  the  foundation  of  the  new  conception  of 
our  life  is  clearly  exposed  in  this  present  work, 
which  gives  the  source  of  the  means  indicated 
to  restore  the  energy  which  fails  us  at  a  certain 
age,  and  extend  the  limits  of  our  lives.  The 
experiments  carried  out  in  our  laboratory 
allow  us  to  hope  that  this  goal  may  be  attained, 
thanks  to  the  graft  of  certain  glands  which 
pour  into  our  organs  a  liquid  stimulating  the 
vitality  of  our  tissues,  and  supporting  their 
resistance  against  the  causes  of  their  decline. 
The  renewal  of  our  source  of  energy,  when 
about  to  become  exhausted,  by  incorporating 
in  our  organism  a  young  gland  to  replace  one 
which  age  has  enfeebled  or  destroyed,  would 
mean  a  solution  of  the  agonizing  problem  of 
our  precocious  decline,  or  our  death  at  an  age 
when  life  still  retains  all  its  charms. 

This  book  will   demonstrate   the   solution 


xx     FOREWORD  BY  THE  AUTHOR 

advanced.  And  it  is  our  hope  that,  at  the 
same  time,  the  problems  it  presents  for  con- 
sideration, by  awakening  the  interest  of  in- 
vestigators, will  call  forth  further  new  re- 
searches enriching  science,  and  redounding  to 
the  welfare  of  humanity. 

S.  V. 

New  York,  August  6,  1920. 


LIFE 


LIFE 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  RESTORING 
VITAL    ENERGY    AND   PROLONGING    LIFE 


CHAPTER  I 

The  longevity  of  living  creatures  is  in  reverse  relation 
to  their  organic  perfection — The  longevity  of  the 
mammals,  in  whose  ladder  of  progression  man 
stands  on  the  topmost  rung,  is  in  direct  relation 
to  the  duration  of  the  period  of  growth  necessary 
to  complete  bodily  development — The  normal  life- 
span  of  man  should  be  from  120  to  140  years — 
Mode  or  manner  of  life  exerts  but  slight  influence 
on  life  duration. 

SCIENCE,  as  it  is  now  constituted,  fails  to 
supply  a  single  law  according  to  which  lon- 
gevity may  be  recorded.  Is  it  directly  related 
to  the  simple  organic  constitution  of  the  body  ? 
There  are  too  few  facts  available  with  regard 


2  LIFE 

to  length  of  life  among  the  lower  animals  for 
us  to  be  able  to  make  a  deduction.  Yet  there 
is  proof  positive  that  among  the  vertebrate 
animals — ascending  the  scale  from  fishes  to 
reptiles,  from  reptiles  to  birds,  and  from  these 
to  mammals — as  organic  complexity  and  per- 
fection increase,  length  of  life  diminishes. 
Pishes  and  reptiles  live  longer  than  birds,  and 
among  the  birds  are  some  that  reach  a  far 
greater  age  than  do  the  mammals.  Mention 
has  often  been  made  of  the  pike  caught  near 
Hailbronn  in  1230,  which  lived  to  an  age  of 
267  years.  Carp  are  known  to  have  reached 
the  age  of  150  years,  tortoises  two  centuries, 
and  the  larger  snakes  and  the  crocodiles  a 
period  equally  long.  Among  birds,  parakeets 
live  to  be  a  hundred,  ravens  reach  seventy,  the 
wild  goose  eighty  and  the  domesticated  swan 
seventy  years.  Eagles  are  known  to  have  lived 
to  an  age  of  110  and  118  years,  and  falcons  160. 
Birds,  nevertheless,  never  attain  the  great  age 
of  the  crocodiles  and  tortoises. 

The  life-span  continues  to  diminish  when 
we  rise  to  the  mammals.  Among  them,  leaving 


LIFE  3 

man  out  of  the  question,  the  elephant,  which 
would  come  first,  may  live  to  be  a  hundred; 
although  this  is  not  often  the  case.  Horses 
rarely  live  fifty  years;  camels,  forty;  cattle, 
thirty ;  sheep,  twelve  or  fourteen  years,  which 
represents  extreme  old  age  in  the  case  of  these 
animals. 

The  carnivora  have  an  even  shorter  life- 
span.  Man  alone,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  his 
organism  is  the  one  most  highly  perfected,  is 
able  to  reach  an  age  beyond  that  attained  by 
any  other  mammals. 

Centenarians  are  far  more  common  than  we 
are  accustomed  to  believe.  In  France  some 
150  persons  aged  a  hundred  or  more  die  every 
year,  and  France  is  by  no  means  the  land  most 
favored  in  this  respect.  During  May  of  last 
year  there  was  celebrated  in  Rome  the  cen- 
tenary of  Senator  Count  Greppi,  whom  I  re- 
member in  1920  as  most  assiduous  in  his 
attendance  at  the  meetings  of  the  Senate,  and 
as  seldom  missing  a  first  night  at  the  theater. 
Without  harking  back  to  by-gone  epochs 
where  legend  often  colors  truth,  we  may  find 


4  LIFE 

authentic  cases  of  a  longevity  exceeding  140 
years.  There  is  the  case  of  Kentigern,  founder 
of  Glasgow  Abbey,  who  died  at  the  age  of  165. 
More  authentic  still  is  that  of  Drakenberg, 
who,  born  1626,  in  Norway,  died  in  1772,  at  the 
age  of  146  years.  Thomas  Parr,  buried  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  died  at  the  age  of  152 
years  and  nine  months.  Frangois  Secardi 
Hugo,  Venetian  consul,  died  at  Smyrna,  aged 
114  years,  10  months  and  12  days.  And  in  our 
own  time  Dr.  Christaki  was  still  living  in  1896, 
at  Constantinople,  at  the  age  of  110. 

We  will  have  occasion  to  cite  other  examples 
of  great  longevity,  but  can  affirm  without 
doubt  that  an  age  of  140  years  is  in  no  wise 
incompatible  with  the  constitution  of  the 
human  body.  Incidentally,  there  are  scientific 
proofs  which  justify  the  assertion.  Numerous 
studies  have  been  made  in  order  to  discover 
the  laws  which  govern  length  of  life.  Buffon 
admitted  that  "the  duration  of  life  in  its  total- 
ity may,  in  a  degree,  be  measured  by  the  du- 
ration of  the  period  of  growth."  Now,  since 
the  length  of  time  necessary  for  any  animal  to 


LIFE  5 

attain  its  normal  growth  is  exactly  fixed  in 
each  species,  it  is  possible  to  calculate  the  age 
it  will  reach.  In  fact,  animals  are  able  to  grow 
no  more  than  a  determined  size,  one  which 
scarcely  ever  varies.  They  take  a  certain 
number  of  years,  also  exactly  determined,  in 
which  to  attain  this  size.  Hence,  longevity 
may  be  thus  deduced  and  determined  for  every 
species.  Buffon  was  so  firmly  convinced  of 
this  that  he  believed  that  "the  duration  of  life 
does  not  depend  on  habit,  custom,  or  quality  of 
food,  that  nothing  can  change  the  laws  of 
mechanism  which  regulate  the  number  of  our 
years,  and  that  one  can  hardly  change  these 
save  by  over-eating  or  excessive  fasting. " 
Basing  his  conclusions  on  this  principle,  Buf- 
f on  admitted  that  the  duration  of  life  was  six 
to  seven  times  that  of  the  period  of  growth. 
Thus  the  horse,  which  attains  his  growth  in 
four  years,  lives  to  be  twenty-five  or  thirty; 
the  stag,  which  reaches  his  normal  growth  in 
the  course  of  five  or  six  years,  lives  to  an  age 
of  thirty-five  or  forty. 

As  for  man,  Buffon  has  calculated  his  Ion- 


6  LIFE 

gevity  as  from  90  to  100  years,  while  admitting 
that  his  period  of  growth  ends  at  fourteen.  In 
fact  fourteen  times  six  or  seven  would  give  us 
the  figures  in  question.  Yet  as  Flourens  has 
well  said,  if  Buffon  was  right  in  principle,  in 
determining  our  longevity  by  multiplying  our 
period  of  growth  by  six  or  seven,  he  was  mis- 
taken in  fixing  fourteen  years  as  the  terminal 
age  of  growth.  The  truth  is  that  the  length  of 
time  it  takes  our  bones  to  grow,  and  the  age 
at  which  this  process  of  growth  comes  to  an 
end,  is  twenty  years.  Hence,  one  should  be 
able,  normally,  to  reach  an  age  of  120  or  even 
140  years,  and  observation  has  confirmed  the 
fact.  This  law  of  stability  in  longevity  in  ac- 
cord with  the  length  of  the  period  of  growth 
explains  why— save  in  a  few  exceptional  cases 
— animals  of  large  size,  whose  development  de- 
mands more  time,  live  longer  than  animals  of 
smaller  size.  Mice  and  rabbits  have  a  far 
shorter  life-span  than  cats  or  dogs;  sheep  and 
goats  do  not  live  as  long  as  the  horse  and 
camel ;  and  these  do  not  reach  the  age  of  the 
elephant.  Yet,  though  observation  agrees  with 


LIFE  7 

the  principle  established  by  Buff  on  and  Flour- 
ens,  which  credits  man  with  the  possibility  of 
attaining  an  age  of  140,  very  few  of  us  reach 
this  age.  Aside  from  a  very  large  infant  mor- 
tality, the  death  rate  reaches  its  culminating 
point  between  the  age  of  seventy  and  seventy- 
five,  and  yet  this  age  can  in  no  wise  be  consid- 
ered the  natural  term  of  human  life.  In  fact, 
the  greater  number  of  those  who  die  in  these 
years  are  still  well  preserved,  physically  and 
intellectually,  and  their  death  is  rarely  due  to 
senile  debility.  The  majority  die  as  a  result 
of  infectious  diseases,  pneumonia,  tuberculo- 
sis, or  renal,  cardiac  or  other  affections,  and 
their  decease  should  be  classed  among  cases  of 
death  by  accident,  and  not  as  deaths  due  to  a 
gradual  exhaustion  of  vital  power.  Hence  it 
would  be  interesting  to  study  more  closely 
those  who  have  reached  a  very  advanced  age, 
passing  the  century  mark,  in  order  to  see 
whether  an  analysis  of  their  life,  and^  their 
mode  of  existence  will  not  disclose  to  us  the 
secret  of  their  longevity.  Theoretically  it 
would  seem— and  the  majority  of  those  who 


8  LIFE 

have  written  on  this  question  have  admitted 
it — that  a  sober,  moderate  life,  devoid  of  ex- 
cess, offers  the  surest  guarantee  of  a  long 
existence.  In  support  of  the  contention,  exact 
observation  has  proved,  first  of  all,  that  the 
majority  of  centenarians  are  poor  people,  the 
case  of  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  a  millionaire 
who  reached  the  age  of  101  years,  being  alto- 
gether exceptional.  Poverty  being  the  best 
check  gainst  excess,  and  making  a  sober  life 
compulsory,  the  conclusion  has  been  arrived  at 
that  it  supplies  the  reason  for  that  longevity 
in  excess  of  a  hundred  years  which  certain  in- 
dividuals have  attained.  Unfortunately,  the 
problem  is  far  less  simple,  and  cannot  be 
solved  by  a  few  precepts  regarding  a  well- 
regulated  life.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that 
though  we  discover  among  those  who  have 
passed  the  century  mark  abstemious  persons 
who  content  themselves  with  bread,  milk,  and 
a  vegetable  diet,  and  avoid  excess  in  all  things, 
we  find  among  them  many  individuals  who 
have  led  a  wild  life,  who  have  been  heavy 
drinkers,  or  have  misused  tobacco,  coffee,  and 


LIFE  9 

other  stimulants  and  drugs.  Thus  the  surgeon 
Politiman,  who  lived  from  1685  to  1825,  a  pe- 
riod of  140  years,  was  a  heavy  drinker,  and 
from  the  age  of  twenty-five  on  was  accustomed 
to  intoxicate  himself  every  night,  which  did 
not  prevent  him  from  carrying  out  his  pro- 
fessional duties  during  the  day.  Catherine 
Raymond,  who  died  at  107,  also  drank  im- 
moderately. As  to  the  Irish  landlord  Brawn, 
who  lived  to  be  120,  he  had  inscribed  upon  his 
tomb  "that  he  was  never  sober,  and  when 
drunk  was  so  terrible  that  death  itself  feared 
him."  Gascogne,  a  butcher  of  Trie,  in  the 
Hautes-Pyrenees,  who  died  in  1767  at  the  age 
of  120,  got  drunk  regularly  twice  a  week. 

Great  smokers  are  also  met  with  among  the 
centenarians.  Koss,  who  received  a  longevity 
prize  in  1896,  at  the  age  of  104,  was  an  invet- 
erate smoker.  The  widow  Lazennec,  who  died 
at  104  in  Kerinou  (Finistere)  had  smoked  a 
pipe  since  her  early  girlhood.  Among  centen- 
arians we  also  find  some  who  drank  coffee  to 
excess.  Thus  Elizabeth  Durieux,  a  Savoyard, 
who  reached  the  age  of  114,  lived  almost  en- 


10  LIFE 

tirely  on  coffee,  drinking  regularly  some  forty 
cups  a  day. 

Are  we  to  conclude  from  this  that  excess  in 
the  use  of  alcohol,  tobacco,  and  coffee  has  no 
injurious  effect?  Certainly  not.  Their  nox- 
ious effect  is  too  well  established  to  permit  of 
doubt.  The  examples  just  cited,  and  they  are 
numerous,  merely  prove  that  the  secret  of  lon- 
gevity is  not  concealed  here.  The  manner  of 
life  we  lead  exerts  but  a  slight  influence,  and 
merely  predisposes  us  to  contract  or  avoid  cer- 
tain maladies.  In  reality,  it  has  no  direct  in- 
fluence on  our  normal  life  duration.  Among 
centenarians  we  even  find  those  who  were  ab- 
normally weak,  such  as  Nicoline  Marc,  who 
died  in  the  Boulonnais,  in  1760,  at  the  age  of 
110,  and  "  whose  left  arm  had  been  crippled 
since  she  was  two  years  old;  her  hand  being 
folded  back  under  her  arm  like  a  hook.  She 
was  hunchbacked  and  so  bent  that  she  seemed 
no  more  than  four  feet  in  height."  A  sickly 
Scotch  dwarf,  Elspeth  Walson,  died  at  the  age 
of  115. 

The  deduction  which  may  be  drawn  from 


LIFE  11 

all  these  facts  is  that  the  real  cause  of  longev- 
ity must 'reside  in  some  innate  peculiarity  of 
the  make-up  of  certain  of  our  organs  which 
have  a  direct  influence  on  the  duration  of  our 
life,  and  which  insure  our  existence  for  a 
longer  or  shorter  period.  This  hypothesis  is 
confirmed  in  addition,  by  the  observation  es- 
tablished that  centenarians  are  often  met  with 
in  the  same  family,  and  that  in  most  cases  lon- 
gevity is  hereditary.  Thomas  Parr,  whom  we 
have  already  mentioned,  and  who  lived  152 
years  and  9  months,  left  a  son  who  lived  to  be 
127.  Similar  cases  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 
Yet,  though  longevity  is  transmissible,  it  is  be- 
cause of  some  innate  peculiarity,  it  is  due  to 
some  local  cause,  let  us  say,  which  parents  be- 
queath to  their  children.  What  are  these 
peculiarities  of  our  constitution,  what  are  the 
reasons  of  our  more  or  less  precocious  old  age, 
and  what,  finally,  is  the  cause  of  our  death? 


CHAPTER  II 

Our  ignorance  of  the  origin  of  life  no  barrier  to  our 
understanding  of  the  causes  of  death — The  im- 
mortality of  the  first  living  being,  the  primitive 
cell — Death  appeared  on  earth  only  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  association  of  millions  of  cells  to 
form  superior,  complicated  beings — The  specializa- 
tion of  the  cells  in  our  body  in  view  of  the  very 
individual  parts  they  play — The  inability  of  these 
specialized  cells  to  shift  for  themselves;  their  inter- 
dependence— The  persistence  in  our  organism  of 
the  primitive,  non-specialized  cells  which  have 
retained  the  characteristics  of  the  first  cells  to 
appear  on  earth  (the  conjunctive  cells  and  the 
white  blood  corpuscles) — The  struggle  between  the 
primitive  and  the  specialized  cells — Death  results 
when  the  former  triumph — The  victors  end  by 
invading  the  place  occupied  by  the  specialized 
cells,  and,  incapable  of  performing  their  duties, 
disorganize  all  their  functions  and  arrest  life — 
A  study  of  various  lesions  established  by  the 
autopsies  of  all  aged  men,  and  which  justify  our 
hypothesis  regarding  the  true  cause  of  natural 
death — Experimental  proof  supplied  by  the  graft- 
ing of  organs — Proofs  furnished  by  men  and 
animals  deprived  of  the  thyroid  gland. 

OUR  study  of  centenarians  has  shown  that 
the  secret  of  old  age  is  beyond  hygienic  pre- 
12 


LIFE  13 

scription,  and  that  among  them  we  often  find 
persons  who  are  anything  but  discreet  and  ab- 
stemious. This  agonizing  problem  of  old  age 
is  merged  in  that  of  death,  and  throughout  the 
ages  has  haunted  the  minds  of  scholars.  It 
has  never  been  possible  to  find  a  solution,  and 
as  Delage,  that  great  master,  has  so  well 
pointed  out:  "We  cannot  thoroughly  explain 
death,  because  we  cannot  thoroughly  explain 
life."  But  if  the  initial  cause  of  life  has  a 
purely  speculative  interest  for  us,  this  is  not 
the  case  with  regard  to  the  cause  of  death. 
Our  tremendous  desire  to  live  is  in  contradic- 
tion with  the  wretchedness  of  old  age,  and 
life's  brevity.  We  possess  only  the  instinct  to 
live— the  instinct  to  die  is  missing.  That  ter- 
ror in  the  face  of  death,  as  before  the  specter 
of  the  physical  and  moral  degradation  of  old 
age,  which  Buddha  so  eloquently  expressed  to 
his  father,  the  rajah  Suddhodana,  is  one  which 
all  humanity  shares,  which  all  humanity  suf- 
fers. Even  the  various  religions  have  contrib- 
uted but  little  by  way  of  consolation.  They 
have  only  been  able  to  preach  resignation  to 


14  LIFE 

the  inevitable,  and  in  order  to  attenuate  its 
horror,  in  order  to  satisfy  our  innate  craving 
to  live,  to  live  forever,  they  have  promised  us 
that  we  shall  be  reborn  in  another  life,  a  life 
eternal.  And  in  their  immense  commiseration 
for  poor  humanity,  whom  nothing  could  con- 
sole for  the  loss  of  this  terrestrial  life,  these 
religions  have  even  thought  it  necessary  to 
affirm  that  the  other  life  will  be  one  infinitely 
better. 

But  all  in  vain — atheists  and  believers  im- 
plore God  or  have  recourse  to  science  in  order 
to  prolong  their  existence  on  this  earth  and 
spare  themselves  the  degrading  infirmities  of 
old  age.  Unfortunately,  up  to  the  present 
moment  science  has  shown  itself  powerless  to 
contribute  a  remedy  for  old  age,  or  a  panacea 
to  defer  the  day  of  death.  We  are  acquainted 
with  the  indirect,  auxiliary  causes  of  senility, 
the  effects  of  certain  organic  changes,  the  in- 
fluence of  certain  maladies,  but  we  are  alto- 
gether unaware  of  the  inner  reason  for  the 
obligatory  decline  of  our  organs,  a  falling 
away  which  is  bound  to  occur  at  a  time  ap- 


LIFE  15 

proximately  determined.  Aside  from  trifling 
causes,  the  reactions  of  the  living  matter  itself, 
of  poisonings  of  every  kind,  there  still  remains 
a  formidable  unknown  quantity.  Are  we  able 
to  get  at  it,  can  we  penetrate  the  mystery  of 
our  organism  and  seize  upon  the  primary 
cause  of  our  old  age  and  death?  Only  the 
solution  of  this  problem,  which  will  unveil 
nature's  secret  for  us,  could  spur  us  on  to  find 
a  possible  remedy  for  that  condition  of  senility 
of  which  our  body  offers  so  lamentable  a  spec- 
tacle at  a  given  age.  Arduous  though  it 
be,  this  problem  should  not  be  regarded  as 
above  or  beyond  the  limits  of  scientific  investi- 
gation. 

The  impossibility  of  sounding  the  origin  of 
life,  and  the  appearance  on  earth  of  the  first 
living  being,  should  not  exclude  the  under- 
standing of  what  causes  death.  In  fact,  the 
origin  of  our  life  harks  back  some  millions  of 
years,  and  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  actually 
reconstruct  its  atmospheric  conditions:  heat, 
humidity,  composition  of  the  air,  and  the  exact 
specific  state  of  matter  at  the  moment,  which 


16  LIFE 

X 

made  possible  the  birth  of  life.  Death,  on  the 
contrary,  is  a  phenomenon  which  takes  place 
before  our  eyes,  and  which  we  have  only  too 
frequent  an  opportunity  of  observing. 

Our  study  might  extend  from  the  simplest 
being  to  the  most  complicated  of  organisms. 
We  may  even  verify  by  experiment  a  hypothe- 
sis which  observation  has  suggested  to  us ;  for, 
though  it  be  impossible  for  us  to  create  life 
artificially,  yet  we  may  artificially  alter  its 
modal  character,  provoke  precocious  senility, 
and  bring  about  the  conditions  which  hasten 
or  retard  death.  Research  in  this  direction, 
therefore,  is  permissible,  and  the  non-success 
of  previous  efforts  should  not  discourage  any 
renewed  attempt  to  solve  this  most  serious, 
most  passionately  vital  problem  for  humanity. 

And  first  of  all  the  question  arises :  Is  death 
inevitable,  does  it  present  itself  as  a  universal 
law  which  no  living  creature  on  earth  may 
escape?  I  am  speaking,  be  it  understood,  of 
natural  death,  physiological  death,  not  of 
death  provoked  by  accident,  illness  or  the  ag- 
gression of  the  strongest— all  causes  which  we 


LIFE  17 

are  habitually  permitted  to  observe  in  nature. 
I  do  not  know  that  this  natural,  physiological 
death  has  ever  been  observed  in  the  ease  of 
man,  for  even  men  who  die  at  an  extreme  old 
age,  without  any  apparent  illness,  when  an 
autopsy  is  performed,  show  lesions  and  alter- 
ation of  tissue  which  had  escaped  observation, 
and  which  offer  decisive  proof  that  death  had 
been  caused  by  more  or  less  serious  lesion  of 
certain  organs. 

Hence,  if  natural  death  does  exist— and  it  is 
impossible  to  deny  it— it  should  not  be  of  fre- 
quent occurrence  at  the  age  when  it  usually 
takes  place.  On  the  other  hand,  in  order  to 
study  this  phenomenon,  in  order  to  surprise 
nature's  original  intention,  it  is  logical  to  have 
recourse  to  the  most  simple  of  all  beings,  the 
one  nearest  that  which  first  made  its  appear- 
ance on  earth.  Only  in  this  way  can  we  decide 
whether  death  was  established  at  the  begin- 
ning of  life,  and  whether  it  is  an  unavoidable 
law  of  nature.  Now,  the  most  elementary 
form  of  living  matter  presents  itself  to  us  in 
the  shape  of  a  cell  composed  solely  of  a  small, 


18  LIFE 

soft  mass,  the  protoplasm,  containing,  in  its 
interior,  a  nucleus.  Such  are  the  infusoria, 
the  amoebae,  and  the  other  protozoans  (Fig.  1). 
In  observing  them,  one  will  soon  see  that  each 
of  them  divides  itself,  constituting  two  living 
cells,  without  the  least  particle  of  matter  per- 
ishing. Each  of  these  two  cells  again  divide 
into  two  parts  and  "one  may  observe  them  re- 
producing by  means  of  division,  and  swarming 
about  in  the  most  extraordinary  fashion  in  a 
short  space  of  time.  Generations  succeed  each 
other  with  great  rapidity,  without  the  occur- 
rence of  a  single  death;  one  vainly  looks  for 
one  corpse  among  the  innumerable  multitude 
of  swarming  infusoria."  (Metchnikoff ) .  They 
would  be  capable  of  overrunning  the  whole 
world,  were  it  not  that  being  defenceless  crea- 
tures, they  are  devoured  by  innumerable 
enemies.  When,  after  a  long  succession  of 
divisions,  a  certain  exhaustion  is  noticeable  in 
the  infusoria,  as  a  consequence  of  the  impover- 
ishment of  their  nutritive  ambient,  instead  of 
terminating  their  existence  by  death,  they  may 
join  themselves  together  by  drawing  near  each 


LIFE 


19 


other,  two  by  two,  and  emerging  from  this 
fusion  rejuvenated  and  full  of  activity,  recon- 
tinue  their  series  of  divisions.  The  amoeba 
never  dies.  It  may  be  destroyed  by  an  enemy 
or  as  a  consequence  of  inanition  due  to  lack  of 


FIG.  1 

To  the  left.  Amoeba.  A  schematized  figure.  End,  endoplasm ; 
ect,  ectoplasm;  p«,  pseudopods;  n,  nucleus;  ve,  contractile 
vesicle;  vc,  digestive  vacuole. 

To  the  right.  Protean  amoeba  in  movement,  after  nature 
(Demel).  The  arrow  indicates  the  direction  of  movement,  pi, 
anterior  pseudopods ;  h,  posterior  prolongation ;  n,  nucleus ;  ve, 
contractile  vesicle  (After  Emile  Yung). 

food,  but  physiological  death  is  unknown  to  it. 
In  creating  the  first  living  creatures,  from 
which,  in  gradual  succession  through  millions 
of  years,  the  animal  chain  has  developed,  na- 


20  LIFE 

ture  wished  them  to  live  forever.  The  breath 
of  life  which  for  the  first  time  gave  animation 
to  matter  held  nothing  but  life.  Nature  at  that 
time  knew  nothing  of  death.  What  then  are 
the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  fatal 
changes  in  this  initial  plan  ? 

In  order  to  understand  it,  we  must  follow 
the  progression  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
constitution  of  living  beings.  The  individuali- 
ties of  the  first  order,  formed  of  a  single  cell, 
completely  endowed  with  life,  are  succeeded 
by  organisms  made  up  of  a  grouping  of  several 
simple  cells.  These  last  are  followed  by  beings 
more  and  more  differentiated,  complicated, 
gifted  with  organs  destined  to  accomplish  a 
special  function,  and  hence  composed  of  cells 
far  removed  from  the  primitive  type.  Each  of 
them,  in  fact,  has  had  to  acquire  individual 
qualities  which  enable  it  to  play  a  useful  part 
in  the  group.  The  appearance  of  these  differ- 
ent cells  which  enter  into  the  constitution  of 
our  body  is  so  different  from  that  of  the  type- 
cell,  of  the  primitive  protozoan  first  to  appear 
on  earth,  that  it  is  difficult  to  recognize  in  them 


LIFE  21 

the  elements  of  the  initial  cell.  Nevertheless, 
the  study  of  the  cell,  as  one  ascends  the  degrees 
of  the  ladder  of  being,  shows  us  every  step  of 
the  transition,  and  one  is  able  to  realize  at  once 
how  the  muscle-fibers,  the  nerve-cells,  etc.,  de- 
veloped (Fig.  2).  But  no  matter  how  compli- 
cated, how  perfected  a  creature— even  man- 
may  be,  it  always  harks  back  to  a  single  cell — 
the  ovule,  or  the  egg.  The  transformation  is 
produced  in  proportion  as  this  initial  cell 
splits,  and  divides  more  and  more  frequently, 
in  order  to  form,  little  by  little,  the  different 
cells  which  again  enter  into  the  composition  of 
our  tissues  and  organs.  These  cells,  very 
greatly  modified,  incapable  of  carrying  on  an 
independent  existence,  and  continuing  to  be 
self-sufficient,  are  only  assured  of  life  by  the 
mutual  concurrence  of  all  the  cells  of  the  body. 
They  form  a  society,  a  state,  in  which  each 
plays  a  special  part  destined  to  ensure  the  col- 
lective life.  The  higher,  the  more  delicate  the 
function  of  each  organ,  the  more  perfected  the 
cells  of  which  it  is  composed,  the  more  these 
cells  depart  from  the  primitive  type,  and  the 


22 


LIFE 


FIG.  2. — VAKIOUS  CELLULAB  FOEMS 

A.  Red  corpuscles  of  the  grasshopper. 

B.  Epithelial  cells  of  the  intestines  of  the  fish. 

C.  Cells  of  the  epidermis  of  the  grasshopper. 

D.  Muscle-cell  of  the  riband-muscle  of  a  snail   (After  Pre- 
nant,  Bourn  and  Maillart's  Traitg  d'Histologie). 

E.  Nerve-cell  of  the  human  spinal  marrow;  n,  necleus;  dr, 
dentrites;  a,  exone. 

Below,  some  types  of  the  nerve-cells  of  the  human  marrow, 
cerebrum  and  cerebellum  (After  Deiters). 


LIFE  23 

more  they  find  themselves  dependent  upon  the 
labor  of  the  cells  belonging  to  other,  less  per- 
fected organs. 

The  primordial  faculty  of  the  cell,  which  is 
to  be  sufficient  unto  itself,  and  to  reproduce,  is 
lost  in  increasing  measure.  It  even  disappears 
completely  in  the  case  of  the  nerve-cells,  which 
are  the  noblest,  the  most  perfected  factors  of 
the  organism.  Once  developed,  during  em- 
bryonic life,  they  remain  so  for  their  entire 
period  of  existence,  without  regenerating  or 
multiplying.  Having  acquired  the  loftiest 
properties,  and  specializing  in  psychic  func- 
tions, they  have  completely  lost  the  qualities 
which  characterize  the  immortal  primitive 
cells,  that  is  to  say  the  faculty  of  reproduction. 

Just  as  in  the  social  world  of  humanity,  a 
process  of  selection  takes  place  in  the  human 
organism,  a  hierachy  among  the  various  ele- 
ments composing  it,  from  the  humble  intes- 
tinal cell  which,  so  to  say,  prepares  our  daily 
bread,  to  the  delicate  and  highly  perfected 
cerebral  cells  which  coordinate  the  labors  of  all 
our  organic  artisans,  stimulating  some,  moder- 


24  LIFE 

ating  others,  and  forming  a  kind  of  Roman 
senate  for  our  cellular  republic. 

Yet  by  the  side  of  all  these  more  or  less  per- 
fected, specialized  cells,  by  the  side  of  all  these 
laborious  citizens,  each  of  whom  is  exercising 
some  particular  trade,  we  find  primitive  be- 
ings, incapable  of  performing  any  function 
calling  for  a  professional  education.  These 
cells,  but  slightly  differentiated,  are  an  ap- 
proach to  the  primitive  type,  the  ancestor 
whose  life  was  reduced  to  capturing  food  and 
reproducing  himself— they  are  the  conjunc- 
tive cells  (Fig.  3),  and  the  white  blood  corpus- 
cles (leucocytes)  (Fig.  4).  The  former  have 
everywhere  infiltrated  themselves.  They  are 
found  in  larger  or  smaller  numbers  among  the 
elements  of  all  the  organs,  without  exception. 
The  latter  float  freely  in  the  blood;  and  are 
able  to  pass  through  the  slight  walls  of  the 
capillary  vessels  into  all  the  tissues.  These 
conjunctive  cells  and  the  white  corpuscles  are 
the  proletariat,  a  robust  race,  reproducing 
with  great  facility.  A  close  relationship  unites 
these  two  elements,  and  there  are  numerous 


»'ll 


PC 


A"; 


FIG.  3. — CONJUNCTIVE  CELLS 

1  and  2.     Conjunctive  primordial  tissue. 

3  and  4.  Two  stages  of  its  transformation  into  reticulate 
conjunctive  tissue. 

A*,  nucleus ;  N',  nucleus  in  mitosis ;  P,  protoplasm ;  PC,  chro- 
mophile  protoplasm;  Hy,  hyaloplasm  (After  A.  Branca's 
Prtci*  d'Histoloffie). 


LIFE 


25 


circumstances  under  which  the  white  corpus- 
cles change  into  conjunctive  cells. 

Sturdier  than  all  the  other  cells,  they  wage 
within  us,  from  the  hour  of  birth,  a  relentless 
struggle  which  knows  no  truce,  against  the 
nobler  cells  of  our  body.  These  succumb  in  the 


FIG.  4 

White  blood  corpuscles.  L,  Large  lymphatic  blood  corpuscle ; 
Z,  small  lymphatic  corpuscle;  p,  lymphatic  granular  cells; 
v,  v,  v,  v,  a  similar  lymphatic  cell,  reproduced  at  two-minute 
intervals,  in  order  to  show  its  changes  of  form,  analogous  to 
those  of  an  amoeba. 


long  run,  victims  of  the  sacrifice  they  had 
made  of  their  independence  in  order  to  take 
over  a  limited  role,  a  special  function,  which 
aided  the  entire  community  to  prosper,  but  did 
so  at  the  expense  of  their  own  individual  pow- 
ers of  resistance. 


26  LIFE 

Like  any  highly  organized  society,  where  the 
division  of  work  is  carried  to  its  most  extreme 
limits,  our  bodies  discover  that  they  are  at 
the  mercy  of  primitive  elements  which  tend  to 
level  society,  and  bring  it  back  by  original  in- 
stinct to  the  first  state  where  each  cell  was 
sufficient  unto  itself.  But  our  organism,  where 
all  is  coordinated,  is  fated  to  succumb  to  this 
leveling  process. 

The  study  of  old  age  teaches  us,  in  fact, 
that  the  conjunctive  cells  invade  the  tissues  or 
our  organs  in  an  ever  increasing  degree.  The 
autopsies  of  aged  men  invariably  disclose  the 
disappearance  and  atrophy  of  the  differentiate, 
specialized  cells,  which  are  replaced  by  con- 
junctive cells,  which  leads  to  sclerosis  of  the 
tissues.  And,  in  proportion  as  the  number  of 
cerebral  cells  diminish,  the  conjunctive  cells 
replacing  them  are  in  no  wise  able  to  carry  out 
the  functions  of  those  which  have  disappeared. 
Our  cerebral  faculties  grow  increasingly 
lower,  the  coordinating  influence  of  the  brain 
on  the  organs  weakens,  and  when  the  number 
of  cerebral  cells  no  longer  suffices,  when  our 


LIFE  27 

brain  contains  too  great  a  number  of  these 
conjunctive  cells,  incapable  of  ensuring  the 
functional  harmony  of  all  the  organs,  then 
death  strikes  our  body  deprived  of  guidance. 
But  the  brain  is  not  the  only  organ  attacked. 
We  have  already  mentioned  it  as  being  the 
most  important,  the  most  perfected  organ  of 
our  organism.    The  same  phenomenon  may  be 
observed  in  all  the  other  tissues.    Everywhere 
we  can  verify  the  atrophy  of  the  original  ele- 
ment and  the  substitution  of  conjunctive  tissue 
in  its  place.    Even  the  bones  undergo  the  com- 
mon fate.     Primitive  cells   (the  osteoclasts) 
multiply  around  the  osseus  laminae,  whence 
they  draw  the  pith  of  the  bony  substance; 
wherefore  we  have  those  fractures  of  such  fre- 
quent occurrence  in  the  case  of  old  men. 

Part  of  the  lime  thus  liberated  passes  into 
the  circulation  and  is  deposited  along  the  walls 
of  the  arteries,  already  changed  by  the  inva- 
sion of  the  conjunctive  cells,  makes  them  hard 
and  brittle,  robs  them  of  their  elasticity,  and 
renders  them  unfit  for  nourishing  our  organs. 

These  are  the  most  characteristic  lesions  of 


28  LIFE 

old  age,  known  under  the  name  of  arterio- 
sclerosis. The  muscles,  in  their  turn,  experi- 
ence the  invasion  of  the  primitive  protoplasm 
(the  sarcoplasm),  which  destroys  the  contrac- 
tile substance.  The  muscular  fibers  grow 
smaller,  hence  the  muscular  weakness  which 
shows  itself  well  in  advance  of  the  decrease  of 
intellectual  activity.  Beginning  with  the  age 
of  sixty,  muscular  effort  grows  painful,  atro- 
phy having  taken  possession  of  too  large  a 
muscular  surface.  In  the  liver,  those  cells 
which  play  the  most  important  part  are  also 
those  replaced  by  conjunctive  cells.  The  same 
phenomenon  takes  place  in  the  kidneys,  where 
the  conjunctive  cells  end  by  obstructing  the 
tubes  meant  to  relieve  the  organism  of  waste. 
Everywhere,  in  the  tissues  and  organs,  it  is  the 
conjunctive  cell,  which,  first  holding  a  modest 
place,  multiplies,  and  strangles  and  atrophies 
the  nobler  cells,  usurping  their  place  and,  in- 
capable of  fulfilling  their  duties,  introduce  a 
species  of  anarchy  into  an  organized  society 
and  cause  its  death. 


LIFE  29 

This  phenomenon  may  be  experimentally 
observed  in  the  grafting  of  organs.  The 
grafted  organ,  for  a  certain  space  of  time,  be- 
fore the  formation  of  new  vessels,  is  deprived 
of  blood  nourishment.  A  certain  number  of 
cells,  unable  to  endure  this  prolonged  fast, 
atrophy,  disappear  and  a  part  of  the  organ 
ages  prematurely.  Now,  which  are  the  cells 
which  suffer  this  atrophy  ?  They  are  the  nobler 
cells,  the  most  differentiate  cells,  adapted 
to  play  some  special  part  in  the  organ  in 
question.  And  which  are  the  resistant  cells 
which,  later,  when  supplementary  circulation 
has  been  established,  invade  every  opening  left 
by  the  disappearance  of  the  nobler  cells  ?  They 
are  the  conjunctive  cells,  which  invariably  pos- 
sess this  primitive  element,  resistant,  little 
differentiated,  strong  like  their  ancestor 
whose  principal  quality  they  retain— their 
great  power  of  multiplying  themselves,  of  re- 
turning even  to  their  simplest  embryonic  state. 
Hence  this  phenomenon  is  general  and,  aside 
from  all  trifling  pathological  conditions,  it  is 
the  key  to  the  mystery,  the  reason  why  we  age, 


30  LIFE 

and  the  cause  of  our  death.  Nature  tends  to 
bring  us  back  to  the  primitive  type,  the  simple 
cell ;  but  our  perfected  organism,  in  which  all 
the  organs  depend  upon  one  other,  where  the 
weakening  of  one  reacts  on  all  the  rest,  is  no 
longer  able  to  undergo  this  simplification,  and 
the  brutal  element  which  overruns  it  destroys 
its  functional  harmony,  brings  about  our 
death,  and  perishes  with  us. 

Another  proof,  one  indirect  but  very  en- 
lightening, with  regard  to  the  intimate  process 
of  aging,  and  this  struggle  between  the  simple 
element  represented  by  the  conjunctive  cell 
and  the  nobler  specialized  elements  of  our 
body,  is  furnished  by  the  patients  attacked  by 
cretinism  (Myxcedema),  an  affection  easy  to 
reproduce  experimentally  in  animals  by  re- 
moving their  thyroid  gland  (Fig.  5).  One 
knows  the  mask  of  old  age  worn  by  individuals 
thus  afflicted.  Even  though  they  be  children 
they  seem  more  like  prococious  old  men ;  with 
wrinkled  face,  dry  and  spongy  skin,  a  low  tem- 
perature, sparse  hair  rapidly  turning  white, 
great  muscular  weakness,  a  tendency  toward 


8 

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H          C^ 


LIFE  31 

sclerosis,  especially  vascular  sclerosis,  an  ar- 
rested state  of  bodily  development,  sadness, 
and  apathy. 

Anatomically,  these  lesions  are  quite  ac- 
curately shown  by  hypertrophy  of  conjunctive 
tissue,  which  leads  to  premature  senility.  Now 
what  is  the  role  in  our  organism  of  the  internal 
secretion  of  the  thyroid  gland,  whose  absence 
gives  rise  to  these  phenomena?  All  physiol- 
ogists are  agreed  that  its  action  consists  in 
augmenting  the  excitability  of  the  nerve-cell, 
but  above  all,  in  moderating  the  activity  of  the 
conjunctive  tissue.  The  thyroid  secretion  reg- 
ulates and  moderates  the  life  of  the  conjunc- 
tive tissue,  restrains  its  activity  and  serves,  so 
to  speak,  as  a  check  on  the  invading  tendencies 
of  these  primitive  members  of  the  cellular  re- 
public of  our  body. 

The  absence  of  the  thyroid  gland,  in  depriv- 
ing the  body  of  this  guardian  of  the  activity  of 
the  conjunctive  tissue,  allows  the  latter  to  de- 
velop in  an  excessive  degree.  The  cells  divide 
and  multiply  with  extraordinary  activity, 
atrophying  and  suffocating  the  nobler  ele- 


32  LIFE 

ments  among  which  they  find  themselves,  tak- 
ing their  place,  and,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months,  accomplishing  the  evil  work  which  as 
a  rule  it  takes  them  years  to  complete.  The 
thyroid  gland  pours  no  elixir  of  youth  into  our 
veins,  but  it  does  fight  against  the  encroach- 
ment of  the  robust,  primitive,  non-specialized 
cell,  and  prevents  it  from  taking  the  place  of 
those  trained  to  play  a  special  part  in  our 
body,  for  it  is  this  encroachment  which  de- 
stroys the  harmony  of  the  organism,  troubles 
and  weakens  its  functioning,  brings  on  old  age 
and  hastens  death. 

The  initial  cause  of  old  age  having  thus 
been  elucidated,  it  is  certain  that  the  second- 
ary causes  which  may  accelerate  the  state  of 
senility  and  abridge  our  existence  are  numer- 
ous. Metchnikoff  is  right  in  dwelling  upon  the 
harmful  effects  of  the  fermentation  due  to  the 
bacilli  of  the  large  intestine.  The  poisons  there 
elaborated,  reabsorbed  by  the  blood,  quite 
naturally  change  the  most  delicate,  precious 
and  sensitive  elements  of  our  body,  and  those 
which  are  least  hardy.  On  the  contrary,  the 


LIFE  33 

conjunctive  tissue  formed  by  simple  cells  is 
infinitely  less  influenced  by  these  toxic  prod- 
ucts, and  while  the  former  atrophy  and  perish, 
the  latter  invade  the  territory  opened,  and  dis- 
organize the  functions  devolving  upon  the 
atrophied  cells.  The  same  observation  might 
be  made  with  regard  to  alcoholism,  aggravated 
by  the  fact  that  this  poison  (a  product  of  yeast 
fermentation)  even  seems  to  superexcite  the 
activity  of  the  conjunctive  cells,  whence  rapid 
sclerosis  of  the  vessels  and  organs  in  general 
develops.  But  we  will  not  enter  into  this  sub- 
ject, which  belongs  to  medicine  in  general. 
What  we  have  essayed  to  do,  has  been  to  es- 
tablish the  fundamental  processus  of  all  old 
age  which  leads  to  our  death:  the  struggle  of 
the  conjunctive  cells  of  any  and  every  origin, 
the  simple  cells,  against  the  highly  differen- 
tiated cells,  a  struggle  which  ends  in  the  tri- 
umph of  the  former,  a  triumph  of  anarchy,  the 
ephemeral  reign  of  the  elements  of  brutality, 
whence  proceeds  the  disorganization  of  all 
functions,  and  the  ultimate  death  of  the  organ- 
ism. 


CHAPTER  III 

Why  the  primitive  cells  persist  in  our  organism — Older 
theories  anent  the  mechanism  of  life,  supposed  to 
result  from  a  first  impulsion  given  at  birth— The 
new  conception  which  explains  the  mechanism  of 
life  by  the  impulsions,  continually  renewed,  which 
the  organs  receive  from  certain  enclosed  (en- 
dochondral)  glands — The  relation  between  the 
functioning  of  our  organs  and  the  internal  secre- 
tions of  the  glands :  thyroid,  pituitary,  suprarenal, 
etc. — Identity  of  the  secretions  of  human  and 
animal  glands — Effects  of  this  secretion  in  con- 
nection with  the  greater  or  lesser  perfection  of  the 
organs  on  which  it  acts. 

SINCE  old  age  is  the  triumph  of  the  prim- 
itive over  the  differentiate  element,  can  we  in- 
tervene in  the  struggle  in  order  at  least  to 
defer  the  date  of  this  fatal  victory?  Presump- 
tively, one  might  hope  to  do  so,  since  victory  is 
often  our  portion  even  in  the  trenchant  con- 
flicts between  life  and  death  following  infec- 
tious maladies.  Unfortunately,  the  situation 

34 


LIFE  35 

is  far  from  being  the  same  in  both  cases.  In  a 
malady  we  have  to  do  with  a  foreign  enemy,  a 
microbe  coming  from  without,  and  our  means 
of  action  may  tend  to  destroy  this  intruder, 
whose  death  is  the  ransom  of  our  own  life. 
The  struggle  between  the  two  elements  which, 
both  of  them,  form  an  integral  part  of  our  own 
organism,  has  quite  a  different  aspect.  What 
further  aggravates  the  situation  is  the  fact 
that  the  conjunctive  cell  does  not  injure  us 
until  it  ceases  to  play  its  part,  and  endeavors 
to  trespass  on  the  territory  legitimately  occu- 
pied by  other  members  of  the  same  social  body. 
Originally  it  appears  in  the  constitution  of  our 
body  as  a  useful  element  with  which  we  could 
not  dispense.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  conjunctive 
tissue  which  forms  the  substratum,  the  sup- 
porting mass  for  the  remaining  tissues.  The 
blood-vessels,  the  nerves,  the  muscular  fibers, 
as  well  as  the  cells  of  all  the  other  organs  are 
supported  by  the  conjunctive  tissues,  which 
form  a  species  of  solid  framework,  necessary 
to  uphold  the  edifice. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  white  corpuscles  in 


36  LIFE 

our  blood,  the  source  of  the  continual  for- 
mation of  new  conjunctive  cells,  the  reserve 
which  increases  their  number,  are  actually  our 
principal  defenders  in  the  struggle  against 
alien  enemies.  Kobust  and  very  mobile,  always 
ready  to  devour  indiscriminately  all  that  they 
find  in  their  way,  their  enfeebled  friends  on 
the  inside  as  well  as  their  enemies  from  with- 
out, they  do  not  spare  the  microbes  and  thus 
render  valuable  service  to  the  specialized  cells 
of  our  body,  too  perfected,  too  delicate  them- 
selves to  support  such  a  struggle  with  any 
hope  of  success.  Hence,  we  cannot  search  for 
some  means  to  destroy  them  as  we  do  in  the 
case  of  the  harmful  agents  that  come  from 
without.  Our  intervention,  where  they  are 
concerned,  can  only  consist  in  moderating 
their  tendency  to  multiply  too  rapidly.  Yet, 
though  we  must  be  very  circumspect  as  re- 
gards our  action  against  these  burdensome  and 
prolific  neighbors  of  our  nobler  cells,  it  seems 
logical,  for  that  very  reason,  to  concentrate  all 
our  efforts  in  reinforcing  these  last,  in  stiffen- 
ing their  resistance  against  the  invasion  of  the 


LIFE  37 

conjunctive  cells,  in  coming  to  their  aid  in  this 
struggle  whose  stake  is  our  youth,  our  energy, 
our  equilibrium,  and  the  harmony  of  all  our 
functions.  Have  we  the  means  of  so  doing? 
In  all  ages  men  have  tried  to  rejuvenate  organ- 
isms which  had  aged.  Without  mentioning 
the  alchemists,  and  all  those  more  or  less  fan- 
tastic attempts  made  during  the  Middle  Ages 
to  discover  the  elixir  of  longevity,  minds  as 
serious  as  those  of  Descartes  and  Bacon  pas- 
sionately followed  this  quest.  In  our  own  time 
the  illustrious  biologist  and  philosopher, 
Metchnikoff,  thought  he  had  discovered  the 
remedy  for  our  old  age  in  warring  against  the 
injurious  microbes  of  the  large  intestine  by 
means  of  lacteal  alimentation,  especially 
curds,  and  yogourt.  In  fact,  these  last  contain 
large  non-injurious  bacilli  which  fight  against 
our  evil  little  intestinal  microbes.  Yet  this 
remedy,  like  so  many  others,  belongs  to  the 
arsenal  comprising  all  hygienic  measures 
worth  following.  It  is  in  no  sense  a  panacea 
for  our  old  age,  whose  deep-seated  causes  we 
have  just  considered.  Which  then  would  be 


38  LIFE 

the  really  efficacious  means  of  combating  these 
first  causes  established  at  the  beginning  of  our 
life?  In  order  to  answer  this  question  we 
must  penetrate  into  the  intimate  mechanism  of 
our  tissues,  and  account  to  ourselves  for  all 
that  conditions  their  life  and  functions.  In 
so  doing  we  enter  a  field  shrouded  in  mystery 
only  some  eighty  years  ago.  In  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  study  of  the  human  body  harks 
back  for  centuries,  these  essential  wheels  were 
unknown  to  us.  It  was  well  known  that  every 
organ  played  its  part  from  birth ;  that  the  psy- 
chic functions  devolved  upon  the  brain;  that 
the  heart  pumped  the  blood  through  our  arter- 
ies, contracting  every  second  without  pause 
for  some  eighty  or  ninety  years ;  that  our  ali- 
mentary canal  elaborated  the  nutritive  matter 
of  which  our  system  stood  in  need;  that  the 
kidneys  served  as  a  drain  to  cast  out  organic 
waste  matter,  etc. :  but  no  one  thought  to  ask 
by  what  miracle  each  of  these  organs  fulfilled 
its  functions  without  pause  or  rest,  our  whole 
life  long. 

Everyone,  according  to  his  religious  convic- 


FIG.  6. — THYROID  GLAND  OF  AN  ADULT  MAN 
The   gland  is   shown   resting   against  the  cartilages  of  the 
trachea   and,   on   either   side,   the   caratoid   arteries   and   the 
arteries    of    the    thyroid    gland     (After    O.    Tillaux.      Traite 
d' Anatomic  topographique). 


LIFE  39 

tions  or  his  philosophical  ideas,  sought  the 
reason  for  this  continuity  of  function  either  in 
the  will  of  the  Creator,  who  has  instilled  in  us 
the  principle  of  life,  or  in  a  sort  of  general 
initial  impulse  which  nature  generously  pre- 
sents to  each  of  its  creatures.  And  then— a 
rude  awakening  to  a  disconcerting  fact,  thanks 
to  the  methods  of  experiment  whose  value  has 
been  emphasized  by  Claude  Bernard  in  partic- 
ular :  It  developed  that  it  was  only  necessary 
to  remove  a  man's  thyroid  gland  (Fig.  6),  a 
gland  situated  in  the  middle  of  the  neck,  quite 
a  distance  from  the  brain,  in  order  to  cause 
him  to  lose  his  psychic  faculties,  and  become 
incapable  of  formulating  a  single  thought.  At 
the  same  time  it  was  noticed  that  the  develop- 
ment of  the  body  ceased  (Fig.  7),  that  the  skin 
grew  thick  and  dry,  that  the  hair  fell  out,  that 
the  tissues  were  overrun  with  fat,  and  that  the 
conjunctive  cells,  as  if  liberated  from  re- 
straint, invaded  the  organs  and  transformed  a 
youthful  being  into  a  precociously  old  man. 
Thus  all  our  organs,  even  the  most  noble 
among  them,  the  one  which  in  our  pride  al- 


40  LIFE 

lowed  us  to  compare  ourselves  to  God,  by  rea- 
son of  the  power  of  our  thought,  all  these  or- 
gans depended  on  a  liquid  which  the  thyroid 
gland  elaborated  and  continually  poured  into 
our  blood,  charged  to  carry  it  to  all  our  tissues 
to  ensure  their  functioning. 

Still  worse  is  the  result  of  the  removal  of 
the  four  small  parathyroid  glands,  no  larger 
than  pinheads,  situated  at  the  side  of  the 
thyroid  gland.  All  our  nerve-cells  at  once 
abandon  themselves  to  the  maddest  over-ex- 
citation, communicating  the  most  violent  con- 
tractions to  our  muscles,  and  causing  death  in 
terrible  convulsions  within  a  few  days'  time. 
The  nervous  system,  deprived  of  the  secretion 
of  the  parathyroids,  loses  air  control  of  its 
actions — all  balance  in  its  functions.  It  no 
longer  knows  what  it  is  doing,  so  to  speak,  and 
instead  of  imparting  the  regular  contractions 
adequate  to  the  demand,  it  provokes  inordinate 
movement,  disjoints  the  actions  of  all  our 
muscles,  and  causes  our  death.  Hence  these 
small  glands  are  marvelous  workshops  in 
which  is  prepared  a  liquid  destined  to  mod- 


Bl 


. 

Ill 

>>  o> 


c;  o> 
fl 


l 


I" 

o>    • 

OJ  'bio 


FIG.  8. 

The  Right  Kidney.  5,  suprarenal  gland  (or  capsule)  capping 
the  upper  extremity  of  the  kidney  (After  Testut  and  Jacob, 
Anatomic  topographique ) , 


LIFE  41 

erate  and  regulate  the  activity  of  our  nerve- 
cells,  and  proportion  their  efforts  to  useful 
needs.  And  other  glands  play  a  part  in  our 
bodies  no  less  important.  When  the  supra- 
renal glands,  these  two  small  glands  each  of 
them  situated  above  the  kidneys  are  removed, 
death  infallibly  ensues  at  the  end  of  about 
thirty  hours  (Fig.  8) .  Extreme  muscular  weak- 
ness results,  the  heart  beats  more  and  more 
slowly,  and  the  animal  on  which  this  operation 
has  been  practiced  dies  with  every  sign  of  ex- 
treme exhaustion  like  men  attacked  by  Addi- 
son's  disease,  due  to  the  gradual  destruction 
of  these  glands.  Our  heart,  therefore,  during 
the  entire  course  of  our  existence,  does  not 
contract  thanks  to  a  first  impulsion  supposed 
to  be  given  by  nature  at  the  birth  of  a  living 
being.  A  liquid  secreted  by  the  suprarenal 
glands  is  necessary  to  lend  constant  support 
to  the  beat  of  the  heart  and  the  contraction  of 
the  arteries. 

No  less  important  is  the  role  of  the  gland 
known  as  the  pituitary  (hypophysis)  gland,  a 
small  gland  found  beneath  the  brain,  on  a  level 


42  LIFE 

with  the  palate  of  the  mouth.  It  is  no  longer 
than  a  hazelnut,  it  weighs  little  more  than  half 
a  gram.  And  yet  its  complete  removal  is  fol- 
lowed by  death  in  forty-eight  hours,  or  in  five 
days  at  the  most.  After  the  destruction  of 
this  gland  the  animal  grows  somnolent,  its 
respiration  becomes  slower,  its  temperature 
drops,  and  it  dies  in  a  state  of  coma. 

The  effect  of  hypertrophy  and  of  partial 
atrophy  of  this  gland  on  man  has  been  ob- 
served. It  is  a  most  curious  one,  and  proves 
how  largely  the  functioning  of  all  our  organs 
is  conditioned  by  the  secretions  of  various 
glands,  the  most  essential  machinery  of  our 
body.  Despite  its  small  size  the  pituitary  body 
is  subdivided  into  two  lobes,  each  of  them  pre- 
siding over  a  special  function.  Hypertrophy 
of  the  anterior  lobe,  in  a  child,  before  the 
growth  of  the  bones  has  come  to  an  end,  allows 
these  bones  to  reach  an  exaggerated  length ;  the 
person  in  question  grows  to  a  gigantic  height 
(acromegalia)  ;  his  hands  and  feet  attain  an 
enormous  size;  his  jaws  take  on  unusual  pro- 
portions; his  muscular  development  becomes 


FIG.  9 

Effect  of  the  destruction  of  the  posterior  lobe  of  the  pituitary 
gland  (Gushing). 

To  the  left  is  shown  a  dog  that  has  undergone  this  opera- 
tion. The  tendency  to  adiposity  is  well  marked. 

To  the  right  a  test  dog  of  the  same  age  (After  A.  Shaefer). 


LIFE  43 

considerable,  and  the  subject  gives  evidence  of 
extraordinary  strength  (Fig.  10).  When,  on 
the  contrary,  the  secretions  of  this  anterior 
lobe  are  insufficient,  the  body  remains  short, 
hands  and  feet  stay  small,  and  the  skin  is  soft 
and  delicate  (Fig.  11).  The  secretions  of  the 
posterior  lobe  has  no  such  effects.  It  stimu- 
lates the  lacteal  and  renal  secretions,  influences 
the  development  of  fat,  and  also  stimulates  the 
contraction  of  our  visceral  muscles  (Fig.  9). 

There  are  other  glands  whose  function  is 
still  shrouded  in  mystery,  such  as  the  pineal 
gland,  which  is  found  in  the  middle  of  the 
brain  (on  the  roof  of  the  dorsal  wall  of  the 
third  ventricle)  where  the  ancients  placed  the 
seat  of  the  soul.  In  some  reptiles  a  medial 
eye  is  developed  on  the  level  of  this  gland.  All 
that  is  known  for  the  moment  concerning  its 
function  is  its  influence  on  the  development 
of  the  sexual  organs;  but  new  studies  are 
needed  to  make  its  role  clear.  We  intention- 
ally put  aside,  for  the  time  being,  a  considera- 
tion of  the  sex  gland  (testicle),  whose  descrip- 
tion calls  for  more  complete  development. 


44  LIFE 

But  what  is  important  to  remember  in  this 
review  we  have  just  passed  of  the  role  of  the 
glands  in  our  organism,  is  that  life,  that  the 
functioning  of  all  our  organs  depends  on  them, 
and  that  they  determine  the  action  of  each. 
The  brain,  the  nerves,  the  muscles,  as  well  as 
the  liver,  the  kidneys  and  all  the  other  organs, 
would  be  incapable  of  playing  any  useful  part 
without  the  aid  of  the  glands.  The  suppres- 
sion of  the  stomach,  of  a  large  portion  of  our 
intestines,  of  a  kidney,  is  infinitely  less  prej- 
udicial than  the  suppression  of  the  minute 
parathyroid  glands,  the  suprarenal  glands,  etc. 
The  functioning  of  our  organs  is  no  more  than 
the  result  of  the  activity  of  our  glands,  and 
when  the  bodily  functioning  is  disturbed,  the 
cause,  in  most  cases,  should  be  sought,  not  in 
the  condition  of  the  organ  itself,  but  in  the 
condition  of  the  gland  which  controls  it.  And, 
marvelous  to  relate,  these  glands  perform  the 
same  functions  in  all  animals,  secrete  the  same 
liquid,  produce  the  same  effect  as  in  the  case 
of  man.  The  internal  secretion  of  the  gland 
of  a  sheep  or  a  dog  is  identical  with  that  of 


FIG.  10 

Effect  of  hypertrophy  of  the  anterior  lobe  of  the  pituitary 
gland  (hypophysis).  The  giant  Hugh,  aged  25,  height  7  11/20 
feet  (After  Lauiiois  and  Roy). 


FIG.  11 

Effect  of  insufficient  internal  secretion  of  the  anterior  lobe 
of  the  pituitary  gland.  To  the  right  C.  H.,  aged  51  years.  Ta 
the  left,  his  brother,  aged  32  years  (After  Evans). 

(Stephen  Chauvet.     Infantilisme  hypophysairc.) 


LIFE  45 

a  man,  and  if  one  could  transplant  their  glands 
into  a  human  being,  one  would  secure  the  same 
influence  on  the  functioning  of  the  organs  it 
controls  as  was  exercised  by  his  own  gland. 
And  this  would  be  quite  as  true  in  inverse 
measure.  If  one  could  graft  the  gland  of  a 
man  on  any  animal  the  gland  in  question  would 
act  like  that  of  the  animal.  The  reason  is  that 
all  these  glands  act  solely  through  the  chemical 
substance  they  elaborate,  and  that  this  sub- 
stance is  always  the  same.  That  which  differs 
is  the  quality  of  the  tissues  which  receive  this 
identical  liquid,  their  degree  of  perfection, 
their  evolution  in  the  animal  scale.  The  thy- 
roid gland  of  a  man  acting  upon  a  dog's  brain 
could  only  rouse  the  animal  in  question  to 
action  in  harmony  with  its  own  nature,  its 
canine  capacity  for  manifesting  thought  and 
feeling.  On  the  other  hand,  the  thyroid  gland 
of  the  same  dog,  in  pouring  into  a  human  or- 
ganism the  chemical  substance  which  every 
brain  requires  in  order  to  perform  its  func- 
tions, will  translate  these  functions  in  accord- 
ance with  the  capacity  of  the  cerebral  cells, 


46  LIFE 

which  have  reached  a  degree  of  perfection 
which  those  of  the  animals  have  not  attained. 

All  opotherapy  is  founded  on  this  fact,  and 
we  have  recourse  to  the  glands  of  sheep,  calves, 
etc.,  in  order  to  make  good  insufficiencies  in 
the  functioning  of  human  glands. 

If  I  may  allow  myself  a  comparison,  I  might 
liken  the  action  of  the  glands  to  that  of  the 
electric  spark  of  a  magneto  which  moment  by 
moment  lights  the  gas  and  produces  the  explo- 
sion in  the  cylinders  of  an  auto-motor.  The 
spark  is  always  the  same,  for  a  ten  or  a  hun- 
dred horse-powrer  motor ;  but  the  effect  differs 
and  corresponds  to  the  amount  of  power  which 
each  of  these  motors  is  capable  of  generating. 

As  the  mind  is  convinced  of  these  truths, 
medicine  will  undergo  a  gradual  process  of 
evolution  in  the  direction  of  glandular  thera- 
peutics. Aside  from  microbial  infection,  the 
functional  troubles  of  our  organs  being  noth- 
ing else  but  the  result  of  a  glandular  secretion, 
we  will  concentrate  upon  the  cause,  and  not  on 
the  secondary  harmful  effect  betrayed  by  the 
organ  affected.  By  means  of  a  thorough 


LIFE  47 

knowledge  of  the  effect  of  each  gland,  of  the 
territory  it  controls,  the  functions  which  de- 
pend upon  it,  we  shall  be  able  to  penetrate  the 
consummate  mechanism  of  our  organism,  and 
may  often  be  able  to  master  it.  These  glands, 
so  small,  so  mysterious,  so  profoundly  im- 
bedded in  our  tissues,  avoiding  our  investiga- 
tions, have  remained  unknown  for  centuries, 
and  for  centuries  we  have  known  nothing  of 
the  essential  machinery  of  our  own  body.  One 
might  think  that  Nature  had  wanted  to  hide 
her  secret  from  us,  and  it  is  only  painfully, 
after  age-long  efforts,  that  we  have  succeeded 
in  wresting  it  from  her.  How  many  maladies 
in  which  the  effect  of  injurious  bacilli  could 
not  be  pointed  out,  have  remained  unknown 
to  us  owing  to  our  ignorance  of  the  part 
played  by  these  glands,  and  what  a  marvelous 
source  they  offer  us  for  establishing  the 
balance  of  the  functions  of  our  organs.  Across 
the  millions  of  years  Nature  has  groped, 
sought,  suppressed  the  organisms  which  were 
valueless,  and  little  by  little  formed  beings 
whose  organs  are  admirably  coordinated  to  in- 


48  LIFE 

sure  a  perfect  functioning  of  the  body,  adapted 
to  conditions  of  life  on  this  earth  of  ours.  In 
the  case  of  a  being  normally  constituted,  if 
this  functioning  is  subjected  to  a  disturbance, 
if  our  heart  gives  way,  if  our  muscles  grow 
feeble,  it  is  because  the  gland  which  controls 
them  has  been  disturbed,  or  has  undergone  a 
change.  To  manage  these  glands  at  our  con- 
venience, insure  their  vitality,  the  continuity 
of  their  action,  stimulating  the  one,  replacing 
the  others,  is  to  make  ourselves  masters,  so  to 
speak,  of  our  own  bodies. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Senility  as  the  result  of  the  gradual  destruction  of  our 
specialized  cells  by  primitive  cells  to  be  corrected 
by  increasing  the  vital  energy  of  the  specialized 
cells — The  sex  gland  as  offering  a  marvelous  source 
of  such  energy — The  effect  produced  by  its 
removal — A  study  of  the  eunuch — A  study  of  the 
old  men  whose  sex  gland  continues  to  function, 
and  of  those  in  whom  the  gland  has  atrophied — 
Studies  of  men  of  genius  in  connection  with  the 
functioning  of  the  sex  gland. 

WE  have  formulated  the  ideal  toward  whose 
realization  our  efforts  should  be  directed,  yet 
a  fatality  weighs  upon  us :  it  is  the  intestinal 
strife,  deeply  seated  within  our  tissues,  the 
battle  which  the  primitive  cell,  the  conjunctive 
cell,  is  continually  waging  against  higher 
specialized  elements  of  our  organs,  and  which 
stamps  them  with  the  stigma  of  age  and  de- 
cline wherever  it  triumphs.  Those  cells  which 
are  finished,  perfected,  and  specialized  in  the 

49 


50  LIFE 

highest  degree  for  a  particular  function,  those 
whose  labors  are  most  intense,  are  the  first  to 
weaken,  yielding  their  place  to  the  robust  in- 
vaders, and  eventually  succumbing. 

Now  stop  to  reflect  on  the  high  degree  of 
perfection  which  the  cells  of  our  glands,  our 
glandular  cells,  must  attain!  They  are  often 
no  larger  in  size  than  a  nut  and  there  are 
some  of  even  smaller  dimensions.  Hence,  in 
the  nature  of  things  they  contain  only  a  very 
limited  number  of  cells  to  do  an  unthinkable 
amount  of  work.  In  the  majority  of  cases  they 
even  divide  this  labor  among  themselves, 
forming  separate  " gangs,"  each  charged  with 
the  task  of  producing  some  different  fluid  to 
act  upon  this  organ  or  that. 

The  thyroid  gland,  whose  principal  func- 
tion consists  in  moderating  and  slowing  up  the 
activity  of  conjunctive  cells,  also  allows  itself 
to  be  invaded  in  the  long  run  by  its  prolific 
neighbor ;  the  number  of  its  cells  charged  with 
elaborating  the  precious  liquid  diminishes,  and 
their  moderating  influence,  weakening  as  they 
disappear,  leaves  the  field  open  in  increasing 


LIFE  51 

measure  for  the  continually  growing  activity 
of  the  conjunctive  cell.  Our  health,  the  con- 
servation of  our  youth  and  our  activity,  the 
harmonious  equilibrium  of  all  our  functions 
cannot  be  preserved,  therefore,  unless  we  find 
ways  and  means  of  aiding  our  specialized  or- 
ganic cells,  those  in  particular  which  have 
assumed  the  most  important  and  essential 
functions— those  of  our  glands  of  internal 
secretion.  Hence  we  cannot  repeat  too  often 
that  to  give  all  these  cells  greater  vigor,  to 
support  their  vital  energy  so  that  they  them- 
selves may  resist  the  pressure  and  invasion  of 
the  conjunctive  cells  for  a  longer  period  of 
time,  must  present  the  most  logical  solution  of 
the  bitter  problem  of  our  decline  and  aging. 
Fortunately  Nature,  which  created  us  that 
we  might  live,  and  endowed  us  with  a  power- 
ful mechanism  for  the  movement  of  our 
organs,  has  at  the  same  time  provided  us  with 
a  marvelous  source  of  energy.  It  is  a  gland 
which  has  been  selected  to  furnish  this  energy, 
for  it  is  invariably  the  glands  which  are 
charged  with  the  task  of  elaborating  the  prod- 


52  LIFE 

uct  capable  of  influencing  various  organs  or 
even  the  whole  organism,  at  a  distance. 

Such,  in  fact,  is  the  part  played  by  the 
testicle,  the  distributor  of  energy,  which  stim- 
ulates the  immense  bee-hive  known  as  our 
body,  where  the  sixty  trillions  of  cells  com- 
posing it  labor  ceaselessly,  each  carrying  out 
some  function  definitely  fixed. 

What  then  are  the  internal  secretive  proper- 
ties of  this  gland?  In  order  to  understand 
them  we  need  only  deprive  the  male  of  the 
gland  and  observe  the  effect  of  this  privation 
upon  his  organism. 

Castration,  therefore,  makes  it  possible  for 
us  to  study  the  role  of  the  sex  gland.  Arid 
since  it  is  much  used  in  the  case  of  domestic 
animals,  and  in  the  Orient,  with  regard  to  man 
himself,  we  have  at  our  disposal  a  large  field 
of  observation.  It  seems  preferable  to  begin 
our  study  at  once  with  the  consideration  of 
castrated  human  beings  (eunuchs),  not  alone 
because  we  have  had  opportunities  of  observ- 
ing them  in  the  course  of  several  years  spent 
in  Egypt ;  but  also  because  they  are  castrated 


LIFE  53 

when  very  young,  before  the  age  of  puberty, 
and  before  the  body  is  fully  developed.  Hence 
their  organism  is  entirely  deprived  of  its  in- 
ternal secretion,  which  makes  it  possible  for 
us  to  determine  the  real  effect  of  this  secre- 
tion in  an  exact  manner.  Animals,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  usually  castrated  at  an  age 
when  their  bodily  development  has  nearly 
come  to  an  end,  which  allows  the  animals  in 
question  to  retain  certain  qualities  already 
acquired  under  the  influence  of  the  sex 
gland,  which  had  been  able  to  function  for  a 
certain  length  of  time.  Again,  the  study  of 
man  offers  the  further  advantage  of  allow- 
ing us  to  estimate  the  modifications  to  which 
the  intellectual  and  moral  faculties  have  been 
subjected,  which  are  difficult  to  determine  in 
the  case  of  animals. 

Castrated  at  the  age  of  six  or  seven  years, 
these  eunuchs,  when  adults,  have  a  certain 
marked  appearance  which  at  once  sets  them 
apart.  As  a  rule,  they  are  tall,  because  of  the 
abnormal  length  of  their  tibias,  their  faces  are 
glabrous  and  livid,  and  their  hanging  cheeks 


54  LIFE 

make  them  look  like  old  women.  Most  of  them 
are  fat,  with  rounded  outlines  and,  in  many 
cases,  voluminous  breasts.  Their  flesh  is 
flabby  and  their  muscular  development  cur- 
tailed. Their  voice  is  infantile,  in  consequence 
of  the  arrested  development  of  the  larynx,  and 
often  discordant.  Their  bodily  vigor  being 
much  diminished,  they  are  incapable  of  doing 
work  which  calls  for  any  extended  effort. 
Their  blood  is  poor,  and  anemia  accentuates 
their  weakness.  In  short,  a  physical  decline 
seems  to  have  stricken  every  organ,  and  one  is 
confronted  with  fallen,  languishing  creatures, 
whose  vitality  has  been  sapped  in  every  re- 
spect. Their  intellectual  and  moral  falling 
away  is  no  less  marked.  All  labor  being  hard 
for  them,  they  are  naturally  lazy,  indolent  and 
without  energy.  Their  faculties  of  affection 
are  largely  effaced,  and  egotism  is  not  the  least 
of  their  defects.  As  timid  as  capons,  they 
readily  sacrifice  their  self-respect,  incapable 
of  an  energetic  answering  thrust.  They  age 
prematurely.  At  thirty  or  thirty-five,  their 
skin  loses  its  suppleness  and  grows  spongy. 


LIFE  55 

After  forty,  the  circle  of  senility  of  the  cornea 
is  permanent.  They  rarely  live  to  an  advanced 
age.  Their  intelligence  is  greatly  weakened, 
and  the  few  eunuchs  who  are  cited  as  playing 
a  notable  role  in  ancient  Byzantium  were 
castrated  when  adult,  and  thus  were  able  to 
retain,  at  least  in  part,  qualities  they  had  al- 
ready acquired.  Even  under  such  conditions 
the  vitality  of  the  organism,  not  being  sup- 
ported by  a  renewed  contribution  of  the  stimu- 
lating energy,  whose  reserve  is  soon  exhausted, 
suffered  a  notable  diminution.  Abelard,  that 
brilliant  poet,  wrote  not  a  single  strophe  after 
he  had  been  castrated  at  the  age  of  forty  by 
order  of  Heloise's  cruel  uncle,  Pulbert.  These 
phenomena  may  be  even  better  observed  in  the 
cases  of  debilitated  old  men  who,  in  reality, 
are  physiological  castrates,  devitalized  by 
the  exhaustion  of  years.  When  their  sex 
gland  ceases  to  function,  when  they  have  lost 
the  ardors  of  affection,  a  characteristic  modi- 
fication of  their  physical,  moral,  and  intel- 
lectual condition  takes  place,  which  their 
families  and  friends  are  quick  to  note.  Even 


56  LIFE 

those  of  an  affectionate  disposition  become 
egotists,  make  everything  turn  about  their 
own  precious  persons,  and  are  indifferent  to 
occurrences  which  previously  would  not  have 
failed  to  move  them.  Dr.  Zambacco  Pasha 
does  not  exaggerate  greatly  when,  in  speaking 
of  old  men  deprived  of  the  amorous  func- 
tion—which is  only  one  of  the  numerous 
manifestations  of  the  atrophy  of  the  sex 
gland— he  affirms  that  apparently  altruistic 
acts  on  the  part  of  these  old  men  (worthy  of 
all  praise,  incidentally,  because  of  their  benef- 
icent effects)  are  not,  as  a  rule,  the  result  of 
a  spontaneous  impulse  of  kindness;  but  en- 
tirely prompted  by  personal  interest  in  the 
hope  of  a  reward  in  the  hereafter,  or  by  a 
feeling  of  worldly  vanity  seeking  to  immor- 
talize their  name  in  the  memory  of  those  who 
survive  them.  Such  old  men,  with  intellectual 
faculties  on  the  decline,  usually  regard  them- 
selves as  infallible,  live  in  their  recollections 
of  the  past,  and  allow  obstinacy  to  take  the 
place  of  intelligent  decision.  The  great  deeds 
of  life,  its  noble  and  generous  actions,  occur 


LIFE  57 

during  the  period  of  sexual  activity,  which 
the  testicle  also  nourishes.  How  right  was 
Metchnikoff  in  saying  that  a  man  of  genius 
loses  much  when  he  loses  the  sexual  func- 
tion! If  Goethe,  that  universal  genius,  pro- 
duced admirable  works  to  the  very  end  of 
his  days,  if  at  the  same  time  he  evinced  an 
astonishing  degree  of  physical  activity  and 
energy,  even  during  the  last  years  of  his  long 
life,  it  was  because  he  was  able  to  fall  madly 
in  love  with  a  young  girl  of  nineteen,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-four,  and,  dying  at  eighty,  bid 
adieu  to  the  world  with  the  words :  ' i  See  what 
a  charming  woman's  head  that  is,  with  black 
curls  against  a  black  background 1"  This 
great  genius  was  a  great  lover,  like  Victor 
Hugo,  like  all  other  geniuses,  though  none  but 
the  poets  among  them  have  dared  to  tell  the 
tale  of  their  loves.  The  case  of  Goethe,  the 
genius,  at  any  rate,  is  that  of  all  men  who, 
reaching  a  very  advanced  age,  continue  to 
show  themselves  sturdily  active,  mentally 
clear,  full  of  affectionate  and  generous  feel- 
ings. Their  sex  glands  still  retain  a  suffi- 


58  LIFE 

cient  number  of  active  cells,  and  nourish 
their  love  of  life,  in  contrast  to  the  old  men 
whose  glands  have  atrophied. 

In  the  manifestation  of  his  physical  and 
intellectual  qualities,  varying  according  to  the 
individual,  man  himself  is  worth  whatever  his 
sex  glands  are  worth. 

The  case  of  the  eunuchs  proves  this  conclu- 
sively. All  their  organs  are  absolutely  identi- 
cal with  our  own,  one  only  is  missing.  Yet 
the  fact  that  they  have  been  deprived  of  this 
one  organ  lowers  and  enfeebles  the  function 
of  all  the  rest.  Hence,  while  he  has  the  same 
brain,  the  same  heart,  the  same  muscles,  the 
eunuch  is  a  creature  fallen  and  decayed,  since 
all  his  organs,  lacking  a  vital  stimulant,  do 
their  duty  in  a  manner  slack  and  remiss,  and 
become  incapable  of  guaranteeing  the  indi- 
vidual an  average  span  of  existence. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  experiments  of  Brown-Se'quard— The  failure  of  his 
method  is  due  to  defective  means  though  at  the 
service  of  the  right  idea — A  legend  of  the  Middle 
Ages  regarding  the  grafting  of  organs—The  graft- 
ing of  a  young  sex  gland,  in  full  activity, 
means  incorporating  in  the  organism  the  very 
source  of  our  vital  energy — My  report  to  the  28th 
French  Surgical  Congress  on  the  grafting  of  tes- 
ticles— The  grafting  of  testicles  upon  normal  males, 
upon  castrated  males  and  upon  aged  senile  males — 
The  grafting  of  these  glands  upon  females— Disap- 
pearance of  the  infirmities  of  old  age— Restoration 
of  the  powers  and  rejuvenation  of  senile  animals — 
Prolongation  of  their  life — Remote  results  of  tes- 
ticular  grafting— The  possibility  of  securing  these 
glands  from  men  killed  by  accident  or  from  ex- 
ecuted criminals — The  need  of  making  legislation 
conform  to  the  actual  progress  of  science. 

THE  study  which  we  are  making  of  the  part 
played  by  the  sex  gland  shows  that,  contrary 
to  the  other  glands,  which  excite  or  moderate 
the  activity  of  a  limited  number  of  organs,  the 
sex  gland  influences  the  organism  as  a  whole. 

59 


60  LIFE 

The  sex  gland  stimulates  cerebral  activ- 
ity as  well  as  muscular  energy  and  amo- 
rous passion.  It  pours  into  the  stream  of  the 
Wood  a  species  of  vital  fluid  which  restores 
the  energy  of  all  the  cells,  and  spreads  happi- 
ness, and  a  feeling  of  well-being  and  the  pleni- 
tude of  life  throughout  our  organism.  The 
period  of  its  greatest  activity  corresponds  to 
the  greatest  expansion  of  all  our  faculties.  It 
is  the  moment  when  our  ebullient  brain  and 
our  over-stimulated  energy  incite  us  to  the 
most  daring  actions.  The  idea  of  capturing 
this  marvelous  force,  of  placing  it  at  our  ser- 
vice when  its  natural  source  begins  to  dry  up 
as  we  advance  in  age,  had  haunted  my  mind 
for  a  number  of  years,  ever  since  my  studies 
in  the  case  of  the  Egyptian  eunuchs  had  re- 
vealed to  me  all  the  importance  of  the  internal 
secretion  of  this  gland. 

Brown-Sequard  had  already  given  thought 
to  it.  In  fact,  this  celebrated  physiologist  had 
informed  the  Academie  de  Medicine,  in  1889, 
with  all  the  weight  of  his  authority,  and  an 
accent  of  profound  conviction,  that  having 


LIFE  61 

had  an  injection  obtained  from  the  glandular 
sac  of  the  ram  by  means  of  the  trituration 
of  the  sexual  organs  of  the  animal  in  question 
administered  to  him,  he  had,  at  the  age  of! 
seventy,  recovered  the  force  and  energy  oj 
youth,  with  manifestations  unknown  to  him 
for  a  number  of  years.  This  declaration,  as 
one  may  well  suppose,  made  a  tremendous  im-j 
pression  on  the  learned  body  to  whom  it  was 
addressed,  and  was  soon  spread  abroad 
throughout  the  entire  world.  The  newspapers 
got  hold  of  it,  and  the  reviews  published  at 
the  end  of  the  year  spared  the  great  scientist 
no  more  than  they  did  myself,  after  I  had  made 
my  report  to  the  Surgical  Congress. 

The  almost  universal  application  of  the 
Brown-Sequard  method  has  not,  however, 
realized  the  hopes  which  were  entertained  for 
it,  and  at  present  it  has  been  almost  entirely 
abandoned.  Nevertheless  Brown- Sequard's 
affirmation  was  exact,  and  his  belief  that  a 
source  of  vital  energy  had  been  discovered  in 
the  sex  glands  was  true  and  correct. 

What  warped  the  resulting  application  of 


62  LIFE 

the  theory  and  multiplied  miscarriages  was  the 
therapeutic  process  employed  in  order  to  in- 
troduce the  production  of  the  secretion  of  this 
gland  into  the  organism. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  observed  that 
the  trituration  of  the  organ  does  not  allow 
us  to  extract  from  it  its  entire  product,  the 
liquid  thus  obtained  always  being  deficient  in 
its  active  element.  The  little  thus  obtained 
may,  however,  still  produce  good  effects  if  it 
be  injected  as  soon  as  the  manipulation  has 
been  terminated,  which  Brown-Sequard  did. 
But  everyone  has  not  a  biological  laboratory 
at  his  disposal.  Now  this  liquid,  like  all  or- 
ganic liquids,  changes  very  rapidly,  loses  its 
properties  and  may  even  become  toxic.  The 
process  of  leaving  the  laboratory  to  enter  the 
shop  of  the  pharmacist,  causes  the  loss  of  what 
has  remained  of  its  virtue  in  the  transit,  which 
accounts  for  the  failure  of  the  method  of  its 
actual  abandonment.  A  poor  process  placed 
at  the  service  of  a  good  idea  has  done  the  idea 
itself  disservice.  Yet  this  is  no  reason  for 
adding  to  those  eulogistic  epithets  which  are 


LIFE  63 

always  showered  on  the  illustrious  scientist, 
that  of  being  a  man  of  impulse.  His  impul- 
sion was  generous  and  his  idea  was  right. 
But  at  that  date  scientists  did  not  as  yet  know 
of  better  methods  for  making  this  idea  prac- 
tical. Brown-Sequard's  mishap  as  regards 
the  sex  gland  has  none  the  less  contributed 
to  install  a  new  method  in  medicine :  opothe- 
rapy.  And  though  it  has  not  been  possible 
to  utilize  the  subtle  liquid  of  the  sex 
gland  in  the  manner  shown,  the  products  of 
the  thyroid  gland,  the  suprarenal  gland,  the 
pituitary  gland,  have  been  found  to  lend  them- 
selves perfectly  to  local  ingestion  or  use  in  the 
form  of  subcutaneous  injections.  Since  then 
science  has  advanced.  Humanity,  its  intelli- 
gence on  the  alert,  has  made  new  conquests. 
The  daring  idea  of  compelling  borrowed  or- 
gans to  live  again  in  our  own  bodies  was  born, 
or  better  said,  realized,  for  the  idea  itself  is 
not  new. 

In  fact,  there  is  a  legend  of  the  Middle  Ages 
which  tells  of  the  miraculous  cure  of  a  pious 
guardian  of  the  church  of  Saint  Peter  in 


64  LIFE 

Rome  by  means  of  a  graft  practiced  by  the 
venerable  Saint  of  the  said  church  in  person. 
After  having  amputated  a  leg  devoured  by 
a  cancer,  he  replaced  it  with  that  of  an  infidel, 
whose  mutilation  was  hardly  worth  mention, 
seeing  that  his  body,  at  all  events,  was  fated 
to  roast  in  hell-fire.  This  medieval  legend  in 
its  turn,  can  be  none  other  than  the  echo  of 
far  older  legends.  Hence  this  is  an  ancient, 
a  long-cherished  dream  of  humanity  which 
our  own  age  realizes  at  last. 

Cast  aside  one's  old  organs  like  worn  clothes 
in  order  to  replace  them  with  new  organs,  what 
a  beautiful  dream  it  is  indeed !  Three  French 
scientists  in  particular  have  endeavored  to  put 
it  into  effect:  Paul  Bert,  Oilier  and  Carrel, 
among  a  whole  galaxy  of  investigators,  have 
contributed  so  many  convincing  facts  during 
the  past  few  years  that  grafting  has  become 
a  part  of  current  practice. 

Hence,  when  once  I  understood  all  the  im- 
portance of  the  part  played  by  the  sex 
gland,  when  I  had  come  to  realize  that  its  in- 
ternal secretion  stimulates  the  vital  energy  of 


LIFE  65 

all  our  tissues,  the  decay  of  which  is  the 
primary  cause  of  our  old  age,  the  grafting  of 
this  organ  was  the  first  thing  that  entered  my 
mind. 

The  grafting  of  a  young  sex  gland, 
in  full  activity,  means  incorporating  in  the 
organism  the  very  source  of  our  organic  ac- 
tion. Thus  the  body  would  be  supplied,  not 
with  a  dead  product,  incomplete,  often 
changed,  introduced  from  time  to  time  by 
means  of  subcutaneous  injections,  but  a  living 
organ,  carrying  out  its  functions  itself.  To 
graft  this  gland  is  to  place  it  in  direct  com- 
munication with  our  blood-vessels,  which  will 
undertake  to  transport  the  precious  fluid  in 
proportion  to  its  formation  in  the  intimacy 
of  our  tissues.  To  graft  this  gland  is  to  par- 
ticipate at  first  hand  in  the  work  of  creation, 
to  imitate  Nature  in  the  procedures  which  she 
has  elaborated  in  order  to  insure  the  harmoni- 
ous functioning  of  our  body. 

I  was  encouraged  in  my  task  by  previous 
experiments  which  I  had  made  with  ovaries, 
and  which  had  proved  to  me  that  it  was  pos- 


66  LIFE 

sible  to  undertake  the  grafting  of  glands 
whose  structure  was  at  least  as  delicate  as  that 
of  the  sex  gland.  I  had,  in  fact,  com- 
municated the  convincing  results  of  my 
ovarian  grafts  to  the  Congres  Franqais  de 
Chirurgie,  in  Paris,  in  1912,  and  to  the  "  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Medicine"  in  London, 
in  1913,  and  as  regards  the  latter,  I  was  able 
to  show  them  the  lamb  born  of  an  ewe  whose 
ovaries  I  had  removed,  replacing  them  with 
the  ovaries  of  her  sister.  However,  the 
hope  of  succeeding  in  the  graft  of  the  sex 
gland  did  not  as  yet  justify  the  practice  of 
this  operation  on  man.  The  most  solidly  es- 
tablished hypotheses  are  only  valuable  in 
degree  as  their  correctness  has  been  verified 
by  experiment.  First  of  all,  facts  must  be 
allowed  to  speak  for  themselves,  and  we  must 
bow  to  their  verdict.  Hence,  I  undertook,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1917,  a  series  of 
experiments  which  were  to  clarify  my  beliefs, 
and  I  did  not  communicate  the  results  ob- 
tained to  the  Congres  Frangais  de  CMrurgie  in 
Paris  until  October  8,  1919. 


FIG.  12. — HUMAN  TESTICLE   (ADULT) 

It  shows  the  canaliculi  surrounded  by  the  interlobular  con- 
junctive tissue  (After  Precis  d'Histologie,  by  A.  Branca). 


LIFE  67 

I  will,  in  the  first  instance,  reproduce  this 
report  as  it  stands : 


"TESTICULAR  GRAFTS 

"An  Experimental  Study  Made  at  the  Physi- 
ological Laboratory  of  the  College  de 
France. 


». 


For  over  two  years,  in  my  laboratory  at 
the  Physiological  Station  of  the  College  de 
France,  I  have  been  conducting  experiments 
in  testicular  grafting,  in  collaboration  with 
my  wife,  Mme.  Evelyn  Voronoff,  assistant  at 
this  laboratory. 

"We  have  in  this  graft  in  no  wise  en- 
deavored to  preserve  the  spermatozoic  func- 
tioning of  the  testicle  necessary  for  the  species, 
but  solely  the  stimulant  effect  of  the  internal 
secretion  necessary  for  the  individual  himself, 
in  the  same  way  as  the  internal  secretion  of  the 
other  endocrane  glands. 

"Our  experiments  have  been  carried  out  on 
a  whole  herd  of  sheep  and  goats  of  which  I 


68  LIFE 

am  still  keeping  some  fifty  or  more  at  the 
Physiological  Station  of  the  College  de 
France,  at  the  Pare  des  Princes.  I  chose  these 
animals  because,  in  their  case,  sex  is  at  once 
recognizable  owing  to  the  development  of 
secondary  characteristics,  contrary  to  what 
may  be  observed  in  the  case  of  dogs,  rats, 
guinea-pigs,  etc.  Besides,  as  you  know, 
Marshall,  and  Cornevin  as  well,  experiment- 
ing on  rams  and  he-goats,  have  shown  that 
castration  when  practiced  at  an  early  age  pre- 
vents the  appearance  of  horns,  and,  when  the 
operation  has  been  practiced  after  puberty, 
the  existent  horns  cease  to  develop  and  take 
on  the  appearance  of  slight,  female  horns.  A 
change  also  takes  place  in  the  conformation 
of  the  head,  which  grows  smaller,  in  the  legs, 
which  become  longer,  and  in  the  general  ap- 
pearance of  the  male. 

"In  the  same  manner  the  old  ram,  castrated, 
so  to  speak,  by  the  advance  of  age,  in  losing 
his  sexual  ardor  loses  at  the  same  time  his 
vivacity  and  his  combative  instincts. 

"  All  these  considerations  have  induced  us  to 


LIFE  69 

make  a  preferential  choice  of  the  ovine  race 
for  our  experiments. 

"Testicular  grafting  has  been  practiced  in  a 
number  of  cases  practically  equal  upon  normal 
males,  upon  castrated  males,  upon  normal 
females,  upon  castrated  females,  and  upon 
very  old,  exhausted  and  enfeebled  males,  in- 
capable of  reproduction. 

"It  is  impossible,  in  the  course  of  the  few 
moments  allowed  by  rule  for  each  report,  for 
me  to  present  in  detail  the  120  experiments 
which  I  have  carried  out,  as  well  as  the  numer- 
ous histological  examinations  of  grafted  testi- 
/ 

cles  made  at  the  Ecole  de  Medicine,  by  the 
eminent  histologist  M.  Eetterer.  These  last 
will  furnish  the  subject  of  a  report  by  M. 
Retterer  himself  to  the  Societe  de  Biologie. 
I  will  confine  myself,  for  the  moment,  to  out- 
lining as  succinctly  as  possible  the  experiments 
themselves. 

"I  have  grafted  complete  testicles  twenty- 
five  times ;  large  fragments,  fifty-eight  times ; 
very  small  fragments,  thirty-seven  times. 
Transplantation  was  effected  subcutaneously 


70  LIFE 

sixty-five  times ;  in  the  sacs,  thirty-two  times ; 
and  twenty-three  times  in  the  peritoneum. 

"In  no  case  has  direct  vascular  anastomosis 
been  practiced,  something,  incidentally,  incap- 
able of  realization  in  view  of  the  slenderness 
of  the  artery  and  of  the  spermatoid  veins. 
Happily,  anastomosis  was  not  necessary.  The 
testicular  tissue  possesses  a  remarkable  apti- 
tude for  transplantation.  The  examinations 
made  by  M.  Retterer  of  graftings  removed  at 
the  end  of  one,  two  and  three  months,  a  year, 
and  fourteen  months,  place  this  beyond  all 
doubt.  It  is  the  peripheral  portion  of  the 
glandular  substance  which  survives,  the  cen- 
tral portion  which  usually  loses  its  vitality. 

"  Grafts  in  the  bag,  in  the  vaginal  tunics, 
furnish  results  far  superior  to  those  offered 
by  grafting  under  the  skin  or  even  under  the 
peritoneum. 

"The  histological  examinations  of  entire 
testicles  and  testicular  fragments  by  M.  Eet- 
terer,  show  at  the  same  time  that  the  vitality 
of  the  graft  under  favorable  conditions  may 
be  just  as  well  insured  by  the  one  as  by  the 


LIFE  71 

other  method  of  grafting,  especially  if  the 
albugineous  tunic  is  very  slender.  The  per- 
centage of  successes  is,  however,  very  much 
higher  when  fragmentary  transplantation  is 
practiced,  which  is  readily  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  nutrition  of  the  small  fragments 
may  be  assured  more  easily  than  that  of  an 
entire  testicle. 

"Besides,  our  aim  foeing  to  implant  in  the 
tissues  glandular  cells  elaborating  internal 
secretions,  whether  they  be  transplanted 
wholesale  or  divided  into  small  groups  is  not 
material.  In  fact,  the  testicles,  either  trans- 
planted entire,  or  divided  into  small  frag- 
ments, have  just  as  comprehensive  an  influence 
on  the  organism  as  the  normal  testicle,  and,  as 
we  shall  learn,  call  forth  again  the  physical 
and  psychic  characteristics  annihilated  by 
castration  or  old  age. 

"In  the  case  of  females  I  have,  on  the  con- 
trary, not  observed  any  marked  influence  re- 
sulting from  grafting,  unless  it  be  a  certain 
arrested  growth  of  the  long  bones.  The  she- 
goats  and  ewes,  normal  as  well  as  castrated, 


72  LIFE 

remained  very  vigorous  after  the  graft,  but 
did  not  attain  the  size  of  the  comparative  sub- 
jects (Fig.  13) .  I  have  not  been  able  to  observe 
the  appearance  of  the  secondary  character- 
istics of  the  male,  such  as  the  thick  horns,  and 
the  male  sexual  instinct.  On  the  contrary,  the 
presence  of  the  testicular  fragments  seemed 
to  disturb  their  instincts.  When  they  give 
birth  to  young,  in  most  cases  they  refuse  to 
suckle  them,  and  regard  them  with  a  kind  of 
surprise  and  indifference  which  speaks  for  the 
abolition  of  the  maternal  instinct. 

"In  the  photographs  which  I  offer  for  your 
inspection,  of  the  he-goats,  Nos.  69, 17  and  15 ; 
the  first,  six  months  of  age,  the  second,  fifteen 
months  of  age,  and  the  third  a  little  over  two 
years  old,  you  will  remark  that  all  three  have 
magnificent  horns,  such  as  are  never  seen  on 
castrated  animals.  (Figs.  14,  15,  16,  17  and 
18.)  Well,  the  first  was  castrated  four  months 
ago,  the  second  has  been  castrated  for  more 
than  a  year,  and  the  third  for  sixteen  months. 
They  have  developed  like  normal  males, 
thanks  to  the  testicular  tissue  which  I  have 


FIG.  13 

She-goat,  two  and  a  half  years  old,  on  which  the  testicles 
of  a  young  he-goat  have  been  grafted.  She  has  remained  small 
iii  size. 


FIG.  14 
Small  he-goat,  No. 


FIG.  15 
Small  he-goat,  No.  69,  four  months  after  the  graft. 


FIG.  16 
Young  he-goat,  No.  17. 


FIG.  17 
Young  he-goat,  No.  17,  one  year  after  graft. 


P^IG.  18 

He-goat   No.    15,    sixteen    months    after   grafting.      He   had 
previously  been  castrated  at  the  age  of  six  months.. 


FIG.  19 

He-goat  No.  15,  completely  castrated  at  the  age  of  six  months, 
testicles  taken  from  another  young  buck  having  been  grafted 
on  him. 


FIG.  20 
Castrated  he-goat  No.  15. 


FIG.  21 
Castrated  he-goat  No.  15. 


FIG.  22 
Castrated  he-goat  No.  15. 


FIG.  23 
Castrated  he-goat  No.  15. 


LIFE  73 

grafted  on  them,  immediately  after  their 
castration. 

"The  effect  of  the  graft  is  shown  not  alone 
in  the  growth  of  the  horns,  but  by  the  appear- 
ance and  behavior  of  these  animals  as  well, 
for  they  are  lively,  vigorous  and  belligerent, 
and  do  not  grow  fat.  No.  15,  actually  two 
years  old,  shows  sexual  ardor  besides,  running 
after  the  females  quite  as  though  he  had  suf- 
fered no  removal  of  his  genital  organs.  Vari- 
ous attitudes,  as  caught  by  the  camera,  offer 
the  most  convincing  proof  of  this.  (Figs.  19, 
20,  21,  22  and  23.)  Still  more  remarkable  is 
the  effect  of  grafting  on  the  old  rams,  photo- 
graphs of  which  I  can  also  offer  you. 

"One,  No.  12,  was  brought  to  me  in  a  de- 
plorable condition,  as  you  may  verify  by  the 
photograph  taken  on  the  day  before  the  opera- 
tion (Fig.  24).  At  twelve  or  fourteen  years 
of  age,  which  corresponds  to  the  age  of  eighty 
or  ninety  in  man,  the  goat  tottered  on  his  legs, 
suffered  from  inability  to  retain  his  urine,  due 
to  senile  decline  of  the  vesicular  sphincter,  and 
gave  the  impression  of  an  animal  exhausted 


74  LIFE 

by  age  and  very  near  the  term  of  his  existence. 
On  May  7, 1918, 1  grafted  in  the  right  vaginal 
tunic,  above  his  own  testicle,  four  large  frag- 
ments, representing  an  entire  testicle  removed 
from  a  young  ram.  Two  months  after  the 
graft  had  been  effected,  the  animal  was  com- 
pletely transformed.  His  urinal  incontinence 
had  disappeared,  so  had  the  trembling  of  the 
legs,  and  he  no  longer  looked  afraid.  His 
bodily  carriage  had  become  magnificent,  he 
behaved  in  a  lively,  aggressive  manner.  The 
old  ram  had  taken  on  the  appearance  of  re- 
markable youth  and  vigor  (Fig.  25).  He  was 
isolated  in  a  small  stable,  together  with  a 
young  ewe-lamb,  which  afforded  an  oppor- 
tunity for  observing  not  only  the  awakening  of 
his  sexual  instinct,  which  he  had  lost  years 
ago,  but  also  the  following  more  tangible  re- 
sult :  the  ewe-lamb  covered  by  him  in  Septem- 
ber, 1918,  dropped  a  vigorous  lamb  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1919.  There  is  nothing  in  the  fact  to 
cause  surprise.  Old  animals,  like  very  aged 
men,  occasionally  still  possess  spermatozoids 
which  are  altogether  alive,  but  it  is  the  atrophy 


FIG.  24 
Old  ram,  No.  12,  before  grafting. 


FIG.  25 
Old  ram,  No.  12,  a  year  after  grafting. 


LIFE  75 

of  the  internal  secretive  cells  which  prevents 
their  experiencing  the  sexual  appetite  and 
manifesting  their  virility.  This  old  ram,  No. 
12,  not  alone  made  it  possible  for  me  to  verify 
the  prodigious  effect  of  the  graft,  but  the  dis- 
astrous effect  of  its  disappearance  as  well. 

"  Wishing,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  to  acquaint 
myself  with  the  structure  of  the  grafted  gland 
at  the  end  of  a  year's  time,  I  removed  it  and 
confided  it  to  M.  Retterer  for  histological  ex- 
amination. 

"  Three  months  after  the  removal  of  the 
graft,  I  was  informed  that  the  ram  which  had 
been  so  savage,  was  aging  with  disconcerting 
rapidity,  that  he  had  once  more  grown  gentle, 
indifferent  and  timid.  In  fact,  I  was  obliged 
to  admit  that  there  was  hardly  a  trace  left  of 
the  youth  he  had  regained.  I  then  essayed  an- 
other graft  upon  him,  on  June  7,  1919,  and  its 
effect  did  not  delay  in  manifesting  itself.  Once 
more  I  had  before  me  a  superb  animal,  carry- 
ing his  head  high,  and  again  full  of  affection 
for  his  companion. 

"Thus  I  have  been  able  to  verify  what  a 


76  LIFE 

potent  effect  the  internal  secretion  of  the  tes- 
ticle exercises  on  the  organism,  and  what  ad- 
vantage may  be  taken  of  it. 

"  Would  it  not  be  possible,  when  that  evil, 
old  age,  the  state  of  senility,  is  due  to  an  in- 
sufficiency of  the  internal  secretion  of  the  tes- 
ticle, to  combat  it  as  one  fights  a  malady,  by 
restoring  the  source  of  its  vigor  and  energy, 
which  age  has  dried  up,  to  the  body  ? 

"  Would  it  not  be  permissible  to  suppose  as 
well  that  it  might  be  possible,  in  the  same 
cases,  to  prolong  life  itself,  which  would  be  in 
no  way  surprising,  since  the  surgical  castra- 
tion, or  physiological  castration  due  to  in- 
crease in  age  for  the  most  part  abridge  the 
term  of  our  existence.  Eunuchs  rarely  reach 
an  advanced  age,  and  as  for  my  old  ram,  No. 
12,  two  years  ago  he  had  no  more  than  a  few 
weeks  or  months  of  life  left,  a  life  of  wretched- 
ness. At  present  he  would  surprise  you  by  the 
vital  energy  and  youthfulness  which  all  his 
movements  betray.  One  is  given  the  impres- 
sion that  with  each  new  graft  he  receives  a 


'  FIG.  20 
Old  ram,  No.  14,  before  grafting. 


FIG.  27 
Old  ram,  No.  14,  a  year  after  grafting. 


LIFE  77 

new  fountain  of  vitality,  and  that  his  strength 
renews  itself. 

"I  have  repeated  this  experiment  on  several 
other  animals — castrated  as  well  as  afflicted  by 
age,  and  the  result  has  always  been  the  same. 
Subject  No.  15,  already  mentioned,  also  fell 
into  a  decline  at  the  end  of  fourteen  months, 
when  I  had  also  removed  the  graft  in  order  to 
confide  it  to  M.  Retterer.  A  new  graft  prac- 
ticed upon  him  on  April  22, 1919,  restored  his 
virility  and  his  vital  energy.  No.  14,  a  ram 
quite  as  old  and  wretched  in  1918  as  No.  12 
was  at  first,  once  more,  in  1919,  became  superb, 
with  all  the  spirited  impetuosity  of  an  animal 
running  over  with  strength.  Compare  the 
photographs  taken  just  before  the  operation 
and  those  taken  a  year  later.  They  constitute 
the  finest  possible  demonstration  of  the  effect 
of  the  testicular  graft  (Figs.  26,  27). 

"I  might  multiply  these  examples,  but  a 
visit  to  my  laboratory  would  be  far  more  satis- 
factory and  would  allow  you  to  seize  at  a 
glance  the  tangible  results  which  I  have  ob- 
tained. 


78  LIFE 

"The  injections  of  testieular  juice  have  not 
had  the  result  which  Brown-Sequard  expected 
from  them,  because  the  glandular  extracts  un- 
dergo rapid  changes,  do  not  contain  the  whole 
of  the  product  of  the  internal  secretion,  and 
are  even,  at  times,  toxic,  as  M.  Gley,  the  emi- 
nent professor  of  the  College  de  France  has 
proved. 

"  Graf  ting,  on  the  contrary,  in  incorporat- 
ing the  gland  itself  in  our  organism,  allows  it, 
as  long  as  its  vitality  lasts,  to  continue  to  pour 
its  active  products  into  the  blood. 

"The  endocrinal  glands  are  powerful  work- 
shops wherein  are  elaborated  the  substances 
which  ensure  the  proper  balance  of  our  func- 
tions. 

"The  deprivation  of  the  minute  parathyroid 
glands,  or  of  the  suprarenal  glands,  never  fails 
to  cause  death;  the  absence  of  the  thyroid 
gland  produces  cretinism;  the  lack  of  the  in- 
ternal secretion  of  the  testicle  determines  im- 
potence, and  physical  and  moral  decline. 

"To  make  up  for  their  lack  or  for  the  in- 
sufficiency of  their  functioning  by  the  grafting 


LIFE  79 

of  a  new  gland  would  be  a  noble  ideal  of  attain- 
ment in  human  therapeutics." 

More  than  a  year  has  elapsed  since  this  re- 
port was  made,  and  the  results  which  I  made 
known  to  the  Congress  have  not  only  been  sus- 
tained, but  new  facts  have  been  added  to  them. 
The  ram  No.  12,  already  a  father  after  graft- 
ing, is  now  the  parent  of  a  second  lamb, 
dropped  February  22,  1920.  The  ram  No.  14, 
isolated  in  the  same  manner  with  an  ewe-lamb 
for  eighteen  months,  is  the  father  of  a  lamb  in 
turn.  All  the  animals  are  enjoying  the  best 
of  health,  and  up  to  the  present  there  is  noth- 
ing to  indicate  a  return  on  their  part  to  the 
wretched  condition  in  which  they  were  before 
grafting.  Whether  or  no  my  opinion  as  re- 
gards the  role  of  the  sex  gland  be  accepted, 
the  fact  remains,  one  easy  of  verification,  since 
the  grafted  animals  are  always  kept  at  the 
Physiological  Station  of  the  College  de 
France.  It  is  easy  to  establish  their  ages,  the 
veterinaries  have  the  precise  record.  Several 
among  them  have  exceeded  the  age-limit  which 


80  LIFE 

animals  of  their  species  attain,  and  instead  of 
showing  signs  of  decrepitude,  of  old  age,  of 
senility,  which  no  animal  arrived  at  the  term 
of  its  existence  escapes,  they  give  proof  of  an 
absolutely  astonishing  vigor  and  fervor  of 
life. 

How  long  will  this  last?  When  will  the 
moment  arrive  for  this  new  gland  to  be  in  turn 
attacked  by  atrophy  and  cease  to  exercise  its 
stimulating  effect  upon  the  organism?  I  do 
not  know.  The  future  will  tell.  But  what  I 
can  affirm  is  that  some  for  two  years  and 
others  for  three  have  enjoyed  good  health 
which  they  did  not  possess  during  the  years 
immediately  preceding  the  graft,  that  some 
among  them  have  procreated  young,  some- 
thing they  had  been  altogether  incapable  of 
doing  for  a  long  space  of  time,  and  that  instead 
of  pitiful  beasts,  timid  and  dejected,  showing 
the  marks  of  senile  decrepitude,  they  have 
once  more  become  superb  animals,  full  of 
spirit,  aggressive  and  belligerent.  And  since 
I  have  seen  them  in  their  wretchedness,  and 
the  only  treatment  given  them  has  been 


LIFE  81 

the  grafting  on  them  of  sex  glands  taken 
from  young  animals,  I  am  convinced.  I  know 
that  inventors  readily  confuse  their  desire 
with  realization,  and  that  in  all  sincerity,  by  a 
sort  of  auto-suggestion,  they  behold  as  fact 
what,  actually,  has  only  transpired  in  their 
imagination.  This,  however,  cannot  be  the  case 
here.  The  dropping  of  a  lamb  in  a  stable 
where  for  a  year  and  a  half  an  impotent  old 
ram,  tottering  on  its  legs,  suffering  from  urin- 
ary incontinence  as  a  result  of  extreme  old  age, 
has  been  shut  up  with  a  young  ewe  cannot  be 
regarded  as  auto-suggestion,  any  more  than 
the  disappearance  of  the  ram's  urinary  in- 
continence and  the  trembling  of  his  legs.  It 
is  equally  impossible  for  me  to  admit  any  error 
of  interpretation  when  I  see  the  picture— fixed 
by  my  camera— of  an  animal  castrated  at  the 
age  of  six  months,  and  grafted  a  year  later, 
showing  an  amorous  ardor  to  which  the  female 
is  complaisantly  lending  herself.  I  am  sim- 
ilarly obliged  to  realize  that  I  actually  have  in 
my  possession  animals  which  have  passed  be- 
yond the  extreme  limit  of  their  lives.  There 


82  LIFE 

was  nothing  in  their  lamentable  condition  be- 
fore grafting  which  might  lead  me  to  antici- 
pate this  exceptional  longevity.  I  do  not  know 
whether  all  these  facts  will  convince  the  in- 
credulous. I  have  been  told  that  the  members 
of  a  learned  society  declared  the  inventor  who 
brought  the  first  phonograph  to  their  attention 
to  be  a  ventriloquist.  In  addition  to  those  who 
are  malevolent,  jealous  and  envious,  one  must 
always  allow  for  those  who  are  repelled  by 
anything  that  is  new.  They  will  not  accept  it 
save  in  order  of  seniority  and  when  it  returns 
to  them,  like  a  veteran,  with  well-merited  serv- 
ice-stripes. In  any  case,  my  conviction  is 
assured,  and  that  is  enough  to  induce  me  to 
think  of  applying  to  man  a  method  by  which 
hitherto  animals  only  have  profited.  Yet  here 
a  great  difficulty  arises.  In  order  to  restore 
force  and  energy  to  debilitated  animals,  I  have 
removed  from  young  ones  what  was  lacking  in 
the  old,  and  allowed  the  latter  to  benefit  at  the 
expense  of  the  former.  Such  a  procedure  is 
impossible  of  application  in  the  case  of  man. 
It  would  in  fact,  seem  little  charitable  to  de- 


LIFE  83 

prive  some  young  creature  of  a  source  of  en- 
ergy that  an  aged  man  might  profit  thereby, 
though,  in  certain  exceptional  cases,  it  might 
be  desirable.  The  restoration  of  the  vital  en- 
ergy, the  productive  power  of  a  Pasteur,  may 
well  be  worth  the  slight  mutilation  inflicted  on 
a  robust  porter.  I  say  slight,  because,  in  re- 
ality, only  a  single  gland  is  grafted,  which  is 
amply  sufficient  for  him  who  receives  and  does 
not  impair  him  who  gives  it.  But  men  would 
rather  have  one  of  their  eyes  removed  than  to 
yield  up  one  of  their  glands ;  and  the  two  offers 
of  the  sort  which  I  have  thus  far  received  were 
by  no  means  dictated  by  a  feeling  of  altruism. 
At  the  figures  at  which  these  persons  have 
estimated  their  precious  glands,  grafting 
would  be  accessible  only  to  millionaires,  and 
it  is  not  always  among  these  that  we  find  the 
existences  that  it  is  most  desirable  to  prolong* 
and  intensify.  Hence  the  future  of  my 
method  would  be  seriously  compromised  if 
this  were  the  only  resource  existing  to  obtain 
young  glands  for  purposes  of  grafting.  For- 
tunately, it  will  be  possible  to  obtain  them 


84  LIFE 

more  cheaply,  when  the  day  dawns  in  which 
physicians  will  be  authorized  to  remove  these 
organs  from  healthy  men,  killed  by  accident. 
Death,  in  fact,  the  stoppage  of  the  heart, 
does  no  more  than  break  the  functional  har- 
mony of  the  organs.  The  individual  himself, 
as  an  acting,  conscient  being,  able  to  express 
life  in  his  collective  entirety,  is  dead ;  but  the 
various  tissues  which  compose  his  body  do  not 
die  at  the  same  time,  and  several  among  them 
survive  for  hours.  The  epidermis  retains  its 
vitality  long  after  death,  and  one  may  see  the 
hairs  of  the  beard  growing  on  a  corpse.  The 
bones  survive  for  eighteen  hours,  and  if  re- 
moved before,  retain  all  their  vitality.  The 
other  organs,  according  to  their  structural  del- 
icacy, give  evidence  of  life  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  period,  but  invariably  for  a  period 
shorter  than  in  the  case  of  the  epidermis  and 
the  bones.  The  brain  is  the  first  to  succumb ; 
yet  not  swiftly  enough  to  prevent  the  head  de- 
tached from  the  body  of  an  executed  man  from 
finding  time  to  realize  its  horrible  situation, 


LIFE  85 

agreeable  to  the  laws  of  man,  but  contrary  to 
those  of  nature. 

Removed  before  their  own  individual  death, 
these  organs  retain  all  their  energy,  all  their 
vital  properties,  and,  transplanted  into  an- 
other body,  are  able  once  more  to  carry  out 
their  original  functions.  And  even  more, 
when  these  organs  are  removed  in  time,  they 
may  be  kept  alive  for  weeks  if  preserved  in 
refrigerators  where  the  temperature  is  main- 
tained at  zero.  In  all  great  cities  the  acci- 
dental death  of  young  and  robust  individuals 
is  recorded  day  by  day.  Nothing  could  be 
fairer  than  to  remove  their  organs,  if  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  organism  is  a  healthy  one,  and 
place  them  in  refrigerators  in  order  to  be  used 
as  the  need  arose.  In  every  large  city  a  special 
hospital  should  be  instituted,  where  those 
might  be  brought  together  in  whose  case  the 
grafting  of  an  organ  might  ensure  continuity 
of  life,  restoration  of  vigor,  or  the  conserva- 
tion of  some  important  function  or  faculty. 
Every  young  person  who  has  died  by  accident, 
should  at  once  be  transported  to  the  hospital 


86  LIFE 

in  question,  and  his  organs,  after  an  attentive 
examination,  should  be  removed,  properly  pre- 
served and  utilized. 

Unfortunately,  prejudice  and  legislation 
are  still  opposed  to  this.  The  .custom  of  cen- 
turies insists  that  we  return  the  mortal  re- 
mains to  earth,  where  they  are  slowly  and  use- 
lessly consumed.  But  time  will  accomplish  its 
work,  the  evolution  of  feeling  and  law  will  fol- 
low the  evolution  of  science,  and  sentimental- 
ity will  be  replaced  by  the  lofty  consciousness 
of  a  superior  duty:  the  service  of  humanity 
even  after  death.  For  the  rest,  even  to  be  re- 
born in  part  only,  to  become  a  new  integral 
portion  of  some  living  being,  would  it  not  be  a 
fate  more  enviable  than  cold  dissolution  at  the 
bottom  of  a  tomb  ? 

While  waiting  for  that  time,  which  I  do  not 
despair  of  seeing  arrive,  we  cannot  count  upon 
those  treasures  of  life  which  are  the  legacy  of 
the  dead.  It  would,  perhaps,  be  easier  to 
obtain  an  authorization  to  remove  the  sex 
gland  from  men  condemned  to  death,  after 
their  execution. 


LIFE  87 

We  cannot,  however,  at  least  for  the  time 
being,  rely  on  the  human  gland  for  grafting 
purposes,  save  in  very  exceptional  cases.  Is 
the  method,  therefore,  fated  to  remain  unborn 
because  of  a  lack  of  material  to  supply  it? 
Will  humanity  be  deprived  of  one  of  the  most 
powerful  means  of  infusing  it  with  renewed 
energy  when  that  with  which  nature  has  dow- 
ered it  begins  to  fail?  I  trust  not.  Fortu- 
nately we  have  a  near  relation  in  the  animal 
world  from  whom  we  may  borrow  what  we 
need  with  less  scruple. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  possibility  of  borrowing  the  sex  gland  of  the 
higher  simians  in  order  to  graft  it  on  man — 
Man's  relationship  with  the  higher  anthropomor- 
phous simians — Resemblance  between  the  simian 
and  the  human  foetus — Identity  of  dentition  be- 
tween ape  and  man — Analogies  between  skeletons, 
skulls  and  internal  organs — Blood-relationship — 
The  relationship  established  by  the  fact  that  the 
apes  enjoy  the  regrettable  privilege  of  being  the 
only  animals  who  contract  our  diseases:  typhoid 
fever,  syphilis,  etc. — Success  attending  the  graft- 
ing of  the  thyroid  gland  of  the  ape  on  man — The 
very  favorable  secondary  results  of  similar  graft- 
ings— The  far  more  pronounced  success  attending 
the  grafting  of  the  thyroid  gland  of  an  ape  on  a 
man,  than  produced  by  man  to  man  graft  of  this 
gland — The  future  of  grafting  simian  glands  on 
man — Application  of  the  same  method  to  intensify 
female  life — Methods  for  securing  their  esthetic 
rejuvenation — The  drawbacks  of  some  of  these 
graftings  so  far  as  women  are  concerned — Effect 
upon  the  organism  of  the  deprivation  of  the  in- 
ternal secretion  of  the  ovaries — The  grafting  of 
youthful  ovaries,  in  full  activity,  on  aged  women. 


LIFE  89 

THESE  relatives  of  ours  are  the  higher 
simians,  the  anthropomorphous  apes  —  the 
orang-outang,  the  chimpanzee  and  the  gibbon. 

Everything  brings  us  nearer  these  younger 
brothers  of  ours,  and  our  close  relationship  to 
them  is  shown  from  the  very  first  days  of  the 
development  of  the  embryo.  Selenka,  who  is 
best  versed  in  the  embryology  of  the  apes,  ob- 
serves that  at  first  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
distinguish  the  human  embryo  from  that  of 
any  ape.  Later,  the  foetus  of  the  higher  simians 
comes  to  resemble  that  of  man  far  more  than 
it  does  the  foetus  of  the  inferior  simians.  The 
three-months'  foetus  of  a  gibbon,  of  which 
Selenka  has  supplied  the  picture  might  just  as 
easily  pass  for  that  of  a  woman.  The  differ- 
entiation is  not  stressed  until  later;  yet  even 
at  five  months  the  resemblance  is  still  notable, 
as  may  be  verified  by  the  figures  given  by  Den- 
niker  and  Buffon  regarding  five-month  foe- 
tuses of  the  gorilla  and  the  ape.  Denniker 
has  been  able  to  verify  that  the  gorilla  foetus 
has  actual  hair  only  on  its  head,  forehead,  and 
about  the  lips  and  genital  organs,  without 


90  LIFE 

counting  eyebrows  and  lashes.  The  remainder 
of  the  body  was  smooth  or  covered  with  a  hairy 
down  no  more  than  a  thirty-ninth  thousandth 
of  an  inch  long.  According  to  Selenka,  who 
regards  the  gorilla  as  our  nearest  relative 
among  the  simians,  "the  great  resemblance  of 
the  premolars  and  molars  in  the  chimpanzee's 
final  dentition  to  the  human  teeth,  seems  to 
indicate  that  the  chimpanzee  and  man  have  a 
common  origin,  and  descend  from  extinct 
forms." 

In  fact,  we  know  that  in  the  comparative 
study  of  mammifers,  the  dentition  supplies 
one  of  the  most  decisive  characteristics  for  the 
determining  of  the  analogies  or  differences 
among  the  various  species,  and  Selenka 's  ob- 
servation is  a  very  significant  one.  Incident- 
ally, Huxley,  in  his  masterly  work,  "Man's 
Place  in  Nature"  confirms  that  "whatever  dif- 
ference as  regards  dentition  the  highest  type 
of  ape  may  offer  as  compared  with  man,  these 
differences  are  far  less  considerable  than  those 
which  may  be  verified  between  the  dentition  of 
the  superior  apes  and  the  inferior  apes." 


LIFE  91 

However,  these  differences  apply  only  to  the 
strongest  dental  development  among  the  apes, 
though  they  have  the  same  number  of  teeth 
(32  in  adults)  and  their  milk-teeth  are  iden- 
tical with  our  own.  The  analogy  between  the 
skeleton  and  the  skull  is  very  marked,  as  also 
between  the  muscles  and  the  internal  organs. 
They  are  afflicted  with  the  same  inconvenience 
as  ourselves  in  the  possession  of  an  appendix 
similar  to  our  own.  Even  with  regard  to  his 
brain  the  chimpanzee  is  much  nearer  to  us 
than  to  any  one  of  the  inferior  apes.  And  if 
he  does  not  possess  an  articulate  language,  it 
is  because  of  the  lack  of  development  of  his 
laryngeal  muscles.  Yet  what  should  carry  con- 
viction of  the  fact  that  man  is  united  to  the 
superior  apes  by  the  bonds  of  a  close  relation- 
ship to  the  most  incredulous,  is  the  verification 
made  by  Gruenbaun,  of  Liverpool,  and  since 
confirmed  by  other  scientists,  that  the  blood  of 
man  is  absolutely  similar  to  that  of  these  apes 
and  differs  completely  from  that  of  any  other 
animal.1 

1  Gruenbaun   and   Bruch  discovered  this   actual   blood-rela- 


92  LIFE 

This  physiological  relationship  is  still  fur- 
ther confirmed  by  the  pathological  one,  and  it 
is  only  the  apes  who  enjoy  the  sorry  privilege 
of  contracting  our  maladies,  such  as  typhoid 
fever  and  syphilis. 

The  miracle  by  means  of  which  a  common 
ancestor  gave  birth  to  two  children  who  have 
followed  such  divergent  paths  in  their  ulterior 
evolution,  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of 
our  considerations,  any  more  than  does  the 
elucidation  of  the  mystery  owing  to  which 
common-place  children  and  such  geniuses  as 
Newton,  Pasteur  and  Michelangelo  come  to  be 
born  in  the  same  family.  What  is  important 
to  remember  is  that  it  is  logical  to  admit  in 
advance  that  the  orga;n  of  an  ape  transplanted 
into  the  body  of  a  man  will  find  there  the  same 
conditions  of  life,  the  same  nutrition  available 
in  the  case  of  its  first  host,  and  that  it  will  be 

tionship  by  treating  the  serum  of  man  and  of  the  ape  in  differ- 
ent ways,  inspired  by  recent  bacteriological  research  as  regards 
the  properties  of  serums.  Thus  the  serum  of  the  rabbit  pre- 
pared with  the  human  blood  does  not  precipitate  any  animal 
serum  whatever,  except  that  of  the  inferior  apes  (a  light  pre- 
cipitation), while  with  that  of  the  anthropoids  it  precipitates 
almost  as  abundantly  as  with  the  human  serum.  For  his  part, 
Bruch  of  Batavia,  using  the  method  of  deviation  of  the  com- 
plement, has  secured  the  same  results. 


LIFE  93 

able  to  adapt  itself  to  its  new  existence  amid 
these  surroundings  with  which  it  is  familiar. 
I  myself  know,  better,  perhaps,  than  anyone 
else,  by  reason  of  my  long  practice  in  grafting 
and  the  experience  acquired  during  the  war, 
at  the  " Hospital  of  Bone  Grafting,"  that  a 
graft  taken  from  a  man  himself,  or  from  an- 
other man  furnishes  the  best  and  most  certain 
results.  I  am  the  first  to  condemn  vain  at- 
tempts to  graft  the  organs  of  calves,  sheep,  etc. 
It  has  already  been  proved,  and  I  have  shown 
at  length  in  my  Traite  des  Greffes  Humaines 
(Treatise  on  Human  Grafts)  that  the  thing  is 
absolutely  impossible.  Between  the  animals 
and  ourselves  yawns  a  biological  abyss,  and 
none  of  their  organs  is  able  to  survive  in  our 
body.  Yet  if  man  may  be  qualified  by  Huxley 
as  a  talented  ape,  might  not  the  ape  deserve  the 
appellation  of  a  primal  man  ?  In  any  case  the 
similarity  of  our  tissues  and  our  blood  to  that 
of  the  superior  apes  is  such  that  the  grafting 
of  a  simian  organ  on  a  man  may  be  compared 
to  that  of  a  graft  from  man  to  man.  Besides, 
some  observations  have  already  been  made 


94  LIFE 

which  confirm  the  actuality  of  the  fact.  The 
report  made  by  Professor  Kuttener  to  the 
Surgical  Congress  of  Berlin,  in  April,  1913,  is 
very  characteristic.  It  concerned  a  child  in 
whom  the  fibula  was  congenitally  missing,  and 
on  which  Kuttener  had  grafted  the  fibula  of  an 
ape.  The  operation  had  been  made  eighteen 
months  before.  Radiography  has  proved  that 
the  bone  had  stayed  in  place  without  the  least 
trace  of  resorption.  One  might,  notwithstand- 
ing, object  that  in  this  case  it  was  merely  a 
question  of  a  simple,  resisting  organ,  of  a  bone, 
offering  only  a  slightly  marked  differentiation 
and  occupying  an  inferior  place  in  the  organic 
scale.  But  I  was  glad  to  be  able  to  offer  on 
June  30, 1914,  the  Academic  de  Medicine  a  new 
statement  of  fact,  this  time  bearing  on  the 
graft  of  one  of  the  most  delicate  and  per- 
fected organs  we  have,  and  which  is  in  every 
way  comparable  to  the  sex  gland  with 
which  we  are  dealing.  I  transplanted  the 
thyroid  gland  of  an  ape  into  the  neck  of  a  child 
with  a  degree  of  success  which  exceeded  my 
best  hopes.  The  importance  of  the  fact  is  so 


LIFE  95 

great,  the  road  it  opens  up  for  the  future  of 
grafting  is  so  broad,  that  it  seems  worth  while 
to  reproduce  at  least  the  essential  part  of  the 
report  in  question : 
"The  case  in  question  was  a  boy  of  fourteen, 

Jean  Gr ,  born  of  Corsican  parents  whose 

thyroid  mechanism  was  devoid  of  any  blemish ; 
nor  did  their  ascendants  present  any  indica- 
tions worthy  of  remark  under  this  head.  Two 
other  younger  children  are  entirely  normal. 
However,  the  little  sufferer  at  first  seems  to 
have  been  a  well-made  child.  He  was  born  at 
the  appointed  time,  began  to  walk  at  nine 
months  and  speak  at  twelve.  Nevertheless, 
despite  his  precocity,  the  child  was  somewhat 
calm  and  apathetic.  Nothing  especially  worth 
recording  occurred  until  he  was  eight  years 
old,  unless  it  were  the  persistence  of  his 
apathy,  the  slowness  of  his  movements  and  his 
want  of  interest  in  play.  At  this  period  the 
child  had  the  measles,  and  immediately  follow- 
ing this  disease  the  symptoms  which  attracted 
the  attention  of  his  parents  were  observable. 
The  child's  face,  belly  and  legs  began  to  swell; 


96  LIFE 

at  the  same  time  his  growth,  which  up  to  that 
time  had  been  practically  normal,  stopped  and 
remained  absolutely  stationary  for  the  space 
of  a  year.  His  intelligence,  which  hitherto  had 
differed  little  from  that  of  other  children  of 
his  age  (he  had  begun  to  learn  to  read  and 
write)  also  ceased  to  develop  for  a  time.  His 
teacher  and  his  parents  noticed  that  the  boy 
made  no  further  progress,  that  he  was  becom- 
ing increasingly  dull,  deaf,  and  articulated  his 
words  with  difficulty.  Dr.  Georgi,  of  Bastia, 
consulted  at  this  time,  treated  the  child  for 
albuminuria.  The  child  possessed  a  quantity 
of  albumen  which  varied  considerably  from 
one  month  to  another.  After  two  years  of  a 
lacteal  diet  the  albumen  disappeared,  but  the 
oedema  continued  to  persist,  and  the  child's 
intelligence  as  well  as  his  growth  remained 
stationary.  At  this  time  the  family  being  in 
Pisa,  consulted  Dr.  Carazani,  professor  of  in- 
ternal pathology  at  the  Facultd  of  Pisa,  who 
soon  diagnosed  a  case  of  myxcedema  in  the 
child,  whose  thyroid  apparatus,  probably  con- 
genitally  ill-developed,  had  suffered  an  infec- 


LIFE  97 

tious  alteration  connected  with  the  measles,  in- 
cidentally quite  a  frequent  cause  of  myxoe- 
dema  in  early  infancy.  Dr.  Carazani's  diag- 
nosis was  soon  confirmed  by  the  results  of  the 
thyroid  medication,  in  the  form  of  thyroid  tab- 
lets, administered  in  doses  of  two  per  day,  for 
a  period  of  three  months,  in  the  Pisa  hospital. 
The  oedema  of  the  face,  belly  and  members  suf- 
fered a  notable  decline.  The  boy's  growth 
once  more  in  a  measure  began ;  his  hair,  which 
was  scanty,  brittle  and  lusterless,  grew  more 
abundant  and  more  supple;  his  skin,  which 
had  been  scaly  and  dry,  became  smoother  and 
softer;  and  his  intelligence  also  awoke.  Un- 
fortunately, as  soon  as  the  treatment  was  in- 
terrupted for  a  couple  of  weeks,  the  boy's  com- 
plexion once  more  turned  yellow,  the  inflation 
reappeared,  and  he  again  became  apathetic  and 
drowsy.  The  thyroid  treatment  was  resumed, 
but  each  time  it  was  suspended,  the  same  phe- 
nomena were  displayed,  greatly  to  his  parents' 
despair.  Besides,  the  thyroid  medication, 
while  largely  ameliorating  the  child's  condi- 
tion, did  not  succeed  in  effacing  the  troubles 


98  LIFE 

due  to  an  insufficient  thyroid  secretion.  His 
complexion  remained  yellowish,  his  lids  swol- 
len, his  nose  thick,  his  face  inert  and  drowsy, 
his  cheeks  flabby,  his  eyes  dull,  his  speech 
dragging  and  hesitant.  At  school,  where  he 
had  been  able  to  return,  thanks  to  the  thyroid 
treatment,  he  did  not  share  in  the  sports  of 
the  other  children,  made  little  progress,  and 
displayed  a  degree  of  intelligence  far  below 
that  of  children  of  his  own  age,  complaining 
of  a  sort  of  heaviness— a  weight  on  his  head. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  I  saw  the  child  with 
Dr.  Hobbs,  a  professor  accredited  to  Bor- 
deaux, to  whose  courtesy  I  owe  the  observation 
which  I  am  about  to  relate.  The  child,  who 
had  stayed  for  some  time  in  the  country,  once 
more  interrupted  his  treatment,  and  appeared 
before  me  with  the  imbecile  myxcedematic 
facies  which  is  so  very  characteristic  (Fig. 
28).  I  then  suggested  grafting  a  portion  re- 
moved from  the  gland  of  the  father  or  the 
mother  of  the  child  itself;  yet  despite  the 
affirmation  of  the  parents  that  they  would 
rather  see  their  child  die  than  to  keep  him  in 


FIG.  28 

Jean  G.,  aged  14  years.     Photograph  taken  the  day  before 
the  operation. 


FIG.  29 
Jean  G.,  a  year  after  the  operation. 


LIFE  99 

such  a  condition,  my  proposal  was  received 
without  enthusiasm.  I  then  decided  to  graft 
on  this  child  the  thyroid  gland  of  a  great 
Papion  ape  which  I  had  in  my  laboratory. 
The  operation  took  place  in  Nice,  at  the 
Sainte-Marguerite  clinic,  on  December  5, 1913, 
in  the  presence  of  nineteen  physicians,  among 
them  Drs.  Grinda  and  Schmidt,  the  surgeons 
of  the  Saint-Roc  hospital,  and  Dr.  Roux,  sur- 
geon of  the  Lanval  hospital.  The  veterinaries 
Duguet  and  Grognart  were  also  present.  In 
operating  on  the  child  I  was  assisted  by  Dr. 
Hobbs.  Drs.  Giovani  and  Fosse  administered 
the  chloroform  to  the  ape  and  the  child  respec- 
tively. 

"The  operation  was  first  undertaken  on  the 
ape,  a  single  lobe  of  whose  thyroid,  together 
with  its  corresponding  parathyroid  it  had  been 
my  original  intention  to  remove.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  left  lobe  when  removed,  was  placed 
by  mistake  in  Ringer's  liquid  which  was  too 
hot,  and  I  was  obliged  to  remove  the  right  lobe, 
which  finally  served  me  as  a  graft.  This  cir- 
cumstance, that  I  had  to  remove  the  ape's 


100  LIFE 

whole  thyroid  apparatus,  together  with  its 
parathyroids,  caused  the  animal's  death  from 
tetanus  in  four  days.  The  right  lobe  and  its 
parathyroids,  removed  with  all  the  precau- 
tions dictated  by  the  most  rigorous  asepti- 
cism,  was  placed  in  warm  Ringer's  liquid,  to 
wait  until  it  should  be  carried  to  the  child. 
The  interval  was  not  long,  for  the  child  had 
already  fallen  asleep  in  the  course  of  the  op- 
eration on  the  ape.  During  this  interval  we 
had  ascertained  that  the  child's  medial  lobe 
and  left  lobe  were  entirely  missing,  and  that 
his  right  lobe  appeared  as  a  slender  lamella,  a 
somewhat  dark  reddish-brown  in  color.  This 
most  satisfactory  verification  supplied  the  key 
to  the  phenomena  observed  in  the  child's  case. 
The  ape's  right  lobe  with  its  parathyroids  was 
then  withdrawn  from  the  Ringer's  liquid, 
which  had  been  maintained  at  a  temperature 
of  about  38  degrees  by  Dr.  Pasquetta,  and  was 
placed  in  the  little  cell  which  should  have  been 
occupied  by  the  missing  left  lobe  of  the  child. 
"The  after-effects  of  the  operation  which 
has  been  so  disastrous  for  the  ape,  were,  on  the 


LIFE  101 

contrary,  most  simple  so  far  as  the  child  was 
concerned.  The  simian  gland  was  perfectly 
tolerated  by  the  child's  organism,  and  no  elim- 
ination resulted.  The  success  of  the  operation 
was  thus  at  once  established.  It  remained  to 
discover  whether  this  gland  would  merely  be 
tolerated  for  a  certain  length  of  time,  while 
continuing  to  be  a  foreign  body,  condemned  to 
undergo  a  slow  and  definitive  resorption,  or 
whether  the  graft  would  really  take,  and  form 
an  integral  part  of  the  organism  in  recovering 
its  proper  functions.  Time  only  could  supply 
a  definite  answer  to  this  question.  In  fact,  the 
influence  of  the  secretion  of  the  thyroid  gland 
is  so  powerful,  and  the  absence  of  this  secre- 
tion, on  the  contrary,  produces  such  serious 
troubles,  that  it  was  only  necessary  to  deprive 
the  child  completely  of  all  thyroid  treatment 
and  observe  him.  This  has  been  done  for 
practically  the  last  fourteen  months.  Now,  so 
long  a  privation  of  thyroid  medication  has  not 
only  failed  to  produce  any  injurious  result,  or 
any  aggravation  of  the  child's  condition, 
which,  formerly,  took  place  whenever  the 


102  LIFE 

treatment  was  suspended  for  no  more  than  a 
fortnight,  but  this  condition,  on  the  contrary, 
has  been  ameliorated  in  a  clearly  apparent 
manner.  Already,  at  the  end  of  one  month,  a 
diminution  of  the  puffiness  of  the  face,  and, 
above  all,  of  the  palpebral  oedema  occurred. 
The  eye  grew  more  expressive,  the  child  ap- 
peared to  be  less  apathetic.  Yet  there  was  no 
reason,  at  this  moment,  to  deduce  from  this 
that  the  graft  had  been  a  success.  In  fact,  the 
restoration  of  the  gland,  if  it  were  taking 
place,  would  act  like  the  ingestion  of  the  thy- 
roid tablets,  and  might  produce  a  temporary 
alleviation ;  yet  in  that  case,  it  would  not  have 
lasted  long,  and  we  would  have  witnessed  a 
new  decline.  Nothing  of  the  sort  occurred.  As 
the  months  went  by,  the  amelioration  in  the 
child's  condition  was  emphasized  in  a  clear 
and  regular  manner.  Little  by  little  his  face 
lost  its  yellowish  color,  his  nose  and  lips  their 
inflation,  the  oval  of  his  face  became  visibly 
longer.  The  child's  movements,  so  apathetic 
and  drowsy,  grew  more  and  more  lively,  but  it 
was  above  all  intellectually  that  he  made  rapid 


LIFE  103 

progress.  His  teachers  at  school  were  unani- 
mous in  testifying  to  this  rapid  awakening  of 
intelligence  and  aptitude  for  study,  a  notable 
contrast  to  the  child's  previous  condition, 
when  he  was  numbered  among  the  most  back- 
ward in  his  class.  The  same  verification  was 
made  by  his  parents,  and  by  Dr.  Montalti  and 
Prof.  Hobbs,  to  whom  the  boy  was  taken  every 
fifteen  days,  and  who  made  a  note  on  each 
occasion,  of  the  increasing  mental  and  phys- 
ical progress  of  his  mental  and  physical  con- 
dition. Here  we  have  a  positive  fact  which 
permits  of  no  doubt  with  regard  to  the  success 
of  grafting  the  thyroid  gland  of  an  ape  on  a 
human  being  (Fig.  29). 

"  Professor  Bernard,  who  has  made  a  mas- 
terly study  of  the  question  in  Le  Dentu  and 
Delbet's  Traite  de  Cliirurgie,  was  therefore, 
correct  in  writing  some  six  years  ago:  'that  it 
is  possible  and  even  probable  that  within  a  few 
years'  time,  fragmentary  grafting,  and  partial 
and  total  transplantation  of  the  thyroid  and 
its  parathyroids  will  be  commonly  effected, 
with  a  considerable  proportion  of  successful 


104  LIFE 

operations.  This  would  be  the  radical  treat- 
ment, since  it  would  once  and  for  all  provide 
all  myxcedematics  and  tetanic  parathyroidians 
with  the  organ  they  lacked/ 

"  Thanks  to  the  technical  process  I  have 
described,  the  grafting  of  the  thyroid  of  the 
ape  on  man  is  possible,  and  a  large  number  of 
myxoedematic  adults,  and,  above  all,  children, 
actually  lost  to  society,  who  are  the  despair  of 
their  parents  and  condemned  to  a  vegetative 
life,  may  thus  be  saved. " 

This  report,  as  I  had  presented  it  to  the 
Academic  de  Medicine  in  1914,  and  the  photo- 
graphs of  the  child  before  the  operation,  and  a 
year  later,  might  suffice  to  carry  conviction 
with  regard  to  the  efficacy  of  the  graft  of  a 
simian  gland  on  a  man.  Yet  what  I  am  able  to 
add  at  present,  six  years  after  the  communica- 
tion was  made,  far  exceeds  the  value  which  I 
myself  attributed  to  the  fact  called  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  Academic.  The  boy's  father, 
employed  at  the  Casino  de  la  Jetee  at  Nice,  was 
of  Corsican  descent,  and  returned  toward  the 
end  of  1914,  to  Bastia,  in  his  own  country.  I 


LIFE  105 

had  lost  sight  of  my  young  patient,  and  hear- 
ing nothing  of  him,  in  spite  of  his  parents' 
promise,  will  admit  that  I  considered  this 
silence  an  evil  auguty.  I  thought  that  his 
parents  did  not  send  me  any  news  because  the 
amelioration  obtained  during  the  first  year 
following  the  graft  had  not  been  able  to  main- 
tain itself,  that  the  child  must  have  relapsed 
into  the  state  of  imbecility  whence  I  had  hoped 
definitely  to  have  drawn  him. 

I  experienced  some  scruples  for  having,  per- 
haps, led  the  Academic  de  Medicine  into  error 
by  submitting  too  early  a  report  of  the  success 
of  this  graft.  But  what  was  my  joy  when 
toward  the  end  of  the  year  1917,  I  received  a 
registered  letter  from  Bastia,  which  I  keep 
carefully,  as  though  it  were  a  relic,  in  which 

the  father  of  Jean  G begged  me  to  use  my 

Paris  connections  in  order  to  secure  for  his  son 
a  station  less  hazardous  than  the  post  of  dan- 
ger in  the  front-line  trenches  to  which  he  had 
been  assigned.  Thus  this  little  Jean,  whom  I 
had  known  in  1913  as  a  poor  little  imbecile, 
with  a  rudimentary  brain,  and  the  body  of  an 


106  LIFE 

eight-year-old  child,  had  been  declared,  four 
years  later,  fit  for  military  service,  and  had 
inarched  off  to  defend  his  country  like  any 
other  man.  The  ape's  gland,  therefore,  had 
done  its  part  marvelously  well,  and  the  inter- 
nal secretion  supplied  by  it  not  only  had  stim- 
ulated the  growth  of  the  bones  and  the  devel- 
opment of  the  body  in  the  human  being,  but  his 
cerebral  activity  as  well.  It  had  neither  atro- 
phied nor  resorbed  and,  actually,  at  the  end  of 
six  years,  it  continued  to  manifest  its  presence 
and  perform  its  functions  as  perfectly  as  the 
normal  human  gland.  The  proof  of  this  fact 
has  been  adduced.  This  experiment  demon- 
strates that  the  gland  of  an  ape  may  replace 
that  of  a  man  and  take  the  place  of  his  own 
human  gland  which  is  wanting. 

Another  observation,  an  unpublished  one, 
regarding  a  child  on  which  I  had  grafted,  in 
Paris,  in  1916,  the  thyroid  gland  of  a  chimpan- 
zee adds  further  confirmation  to  the  fact  ad- 
duced. Since  then  I  have  had  a  number  of 
opportunities  to  practice  the  grafting  of  the 
thyroid  gland  as  a  remedy  for  cretinism  and 


LIFE  107 

the  arrested  development  of  myxcedematic 
children.  But  I  did  not  have  the  apes,  just  as 
at  the  present  moment  I  have  none  in  order 
to  make  graftings  of  the  sex  gland  of  the 
ape  on  man,  and  I  had  recourse  to  the  child's 
mother,  removing  one  of  her  three  thyroid 
lobes  which,  incidentally,  did  not  in  any  way 
disturb  her  later.  I  made  use  of  the  mother's 
gland  in  preference  to  any  other,  by  no  means 
because  it  possessed  greater  virtues  than  those 
of  other  members  of  the  family,  but  because  it 
is  invariably  the  mother  who  offers  her  own  in 
her  sublime  devotion  to  the  child  whom  nature 
has  disinherited. 

It  is  true  that  I  obtained  good  results ;  yet 
they  have  never  equaled  those  furnished  by  the 
ape's  gland.  The  best  I  had  were  obtained  in 
the  case  of  a  young  man  of  twenty,  Georges 
P—  — ,  of  Montereau.  M.  Gley,  the  eminent 
professor  of  biology  at  the  College  de  France, 
mentioned  this  case  in  his  address  at  the  inau- 
guration of  the  Institute  of  Biology  of  Bar- 
celona, in  1919,  after  having  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  verify  the  progress  made  by  the 


108  LIFE 

patient  three  years  after  the  graft.  The  pho- 
tographs will  demonstrate  more  clearly  than 
all  descriptions  what  a  transformation  the 
child  has  undergone  since  the  grafting  (Figs. 
30,  31).  As  to  progress  in  his  mental  func- 
tions, I  will  content  myself  with  signalizing  in 
this  work,  wherein  I  have  no  occasion  to  deal 
with  this  question,  that  before  his  graft,  his 
intelligence  might,  at  the  most,  be  said  to  equal 
that  of  our  domestic  animals.  At  the  age  of 
twenty  he  did  not  know  how  many  fingers  he 
had  on  a  hand,  and  articulated  a  few  words 
with  difficulty.  He  was  operated  upon  Sep- 
tember 21,  1915.  At  the  present  moment  he 
reads  well,  writes  passably,  plays  the  piano 
and  conscientiously  helps  his  parents  in  their 
work  as  pastry-cooks.  He  is  no  longer  a  de- 
graded creature  with  an  idiot  cast  of  features 
—he  makes  the  impression  of  being  a  young 
man  with  an  intelligent  eye,  who  follows  your 
conversation  and  answers  you  to  the  point,  but 

— with  all  that  he  is  no  fighter  like  Jean  G 

His  mother's  gland  has  caused  him  to  make 
considerable  progress,  but  it  has  not  as  yet 


FIG.  30 

Georges  P.,  at  the  age  of  twenty, 
day  before  the  operation. 


Photograph  taken  on  the 


FIG.  31 
Oeorges  P.,  a  year  and  a  half  after  the  operation. 


LIFE  109 

allowed  him  to  acquire  mental  qualities  indis- 
pensable for  a  conscious  and  independent  life. 
He  still  has  need  of  the  protection  afforded 
him  by  his  environment.  The  ape's  gland 
served  my  first  two  subjects  better. 

The  same  observation  applies  to  my  last  .case 
a  myxcedematous  child  sent  to  me  by  Dr. 
Lesne,  physician  at  the  Tenon  hospital.  The 
operation,  performed  a  year  ago,  with  the  aid 
of  a  thyroid  lobe  removed  from  the  mother, 
has  resulted  in  the  resumption  of  growth,  the 
disappearance  of  the  oedema,  and  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  intelligence;  yet,  the  physical  and 
intellectual  progress  made  is  far  more  gradual 
than  that  which  I  have  observed  in  the  case  of 
the  graft  of  the  simian  gland. 

Is  it  because  the  ape  is  superior  to  man  in 
respect  to  the  quality  of  his  organs,  owing  to 
a  more  robust  physical  constitution,  one  less 
attainted  by  hereditary  alcoholism,  arthritis, 
etc.,  or  is  the  difference  due  to  the  fact  that  in 
the  former  cases  the  gland  was  furnished  by 
young  apes,  and  in  the  others  was  supplied  by 
women  approaching  or  having  passed  their 


110  LIFE 

fortieth  year  ?  I  cannot  tell.  But  what  is  cer- 
tain is  that  the  gland  of  the  ape  when  grafted 
on  man  has  afforded  me  better  results  than 
those  obtained  by  a  human  gland. 

I  can  reply  to  the  objection  that  one  might 
be  tempted  to  make,  that  I  cite  these  two  cases 
only,  by  saying  that  the  facts  would  be  numer- 
ous if  the  apes  were  not  lacking.  I  even  be- 
lieve that  if  we  have  remained  for  so  long  a 
time  in  ignorance  of  the  resources  which  the 
ape  offers  us  for  grafting,  it  is  actually  be- 
cause these  animals  themselves  have  not  been 
available.  Scientists  have  frogs,  guinea-pigs, 
dogs,  and,  at  the  most,  goats  and  sheep  at  their 
disposal ;  but  apes  and,  above  all,  chimpanzees, 
are  only  found  as  an  ornament  of  zoological 
gardens,  and  even  that  is  not  always  the  case. 
The  only  chimpanzee  to  be  discovered  at  the 
Jardin  des  Plantes  in  Paris,  for  the  last  six 
years,  was  the  one  I  had  installed  there  myself, 
after  having  removed  his  thyroid  gland  for  a 
backward  child  and  his  humerus  for  a 
wounded  man  in  my  hospital. 

Yet  an  even  more  decisive  reply  may  be 


LIFE  111 

made  to  such  an  objection.  A  negative  result 
may  be  open  to  doubt,  a  positive,  never.  When 
in  the  expectorations  of  a  patient  suspected  of 
tuberculosis,  the  Kochian  bacilla  is  not  found, 
one  is  not  authorized  to  conclude  that  he  is  not 
tubercular,  since  for  one  or  another  reason  this 
microbe  might  not  happen  to  be  present  in  the 
particle  submitted  to  examination.  Yet  when, 
on  the  contrary,  the  microscope  shows  these 
bacillse,  then  there  is  no  further  possibility  of 
doubt— tuberculosis  is  patently  demonstrated. 
If  the  grafting  of  the  simian  gland  had  re- 
sulted in  two  failures,  I  would  not  have  been 
justified  in  concluding  that  it  was  impossible 
to  succeed  in  other  cases,  since  several  acci- 
dental reasons— faulty  technic,  lack  of  asep- 
tics, etc.,  might  have  spoiled  the  result.  It 
would  have  been  necessary  for  these  failures 
to  have  been  constantly  repeated  in  order  to 
admit  their  validity.  But  when  you  establish 
that  the  graft  of  an  ape's  gland  has  been 
crowned  with  success,  that  for  years  it  has 
satisfactorily  accomplished  its  functions, 
nothing  justifies  our  thinking  that  this  graft, 


112  LIFE 

like  similar  ones  made  under  favorable  condi- 
tions, will  not  yield  the  same  result.  Hence 
there  is  every  reason  to  admit  that  the  graft- 
ing of  the  organ  of  an  ape  on  a  man  may  be 
compared  to  a  graft  from  man  to  man  (homo- 
graft).  New  horizons  thus  open  upon  the  fu- 
ture of  grafting  in  general,  and  especially  on 
that  of  the  sex  gland. 

Hard  though  it  be  to  obtain  apes,  it  will  al- 
ways be  a  task  less  arduous  than  that  of  in- 
ducing young  men  to  give  up  one  of  their 
glands.  We  might  undertake  to  raise  apes  as 
we  raise  our  domestic  animals,  the  more  so 
since  they  are  extremely  prolific. 

The  ape  as  the  guardian  of  vital  energy 
transmissible  to  man  will  be  looked  upon  as  a 
most  valuable  animal,  which  will  unfailingly 
be  accorded  the  most  attentive  care. 

Men  who  have  reached  the  age  when  their 
intellectual  and  physical  faculties  begin  to  de- 
cline, when  the  memory  becomes  unreliable, 
thought  is  slow,  effort  more  difficult,  fatigue 
more  prompt,  when  all  the  ardors  of  life  are 
blunted  and  dulled  and  some  are  extinguished, 


LIFE  113 

may  borrow  from  their  young  relatives  of  the 
virgin  forests  a  new  source  of  vital  activity. 

And  women?  When  they  reach  the  age 
where  their  powers  betray  them  and  decrepi- 
tude announces  its  presence,  shall  they  be  per- 
mitted to  descend  the  fatal  slope?  Old  age 
holds  greater  terrors  for  them  than  for  us,  and 
though  they  have  less  energy  to  expend  during 
life,  they  aspire  to  preserve  it  none  the  less. 
The  plastic  surgery  which  we  have  practiced 
for  many  years  and  which,  taken  up  again  by 
some  of  our  young  and  courageous  colleagues, 
has  recently  been  honored  by  the  Academie  de 
Medicine,  has  made  such  progress  that  it  is 
easy  for  us  to  repair  the  outrages  which  the 
years  have  committed  upon  the  faces  of  our 
friends.  The  only  women  who  keep  their 
wrinkles  are  those  who  are  ignorant  of  the 
resources  which  surgery  has  placed  at  their 
disposal,  or  those  who  have  lost  the  instinct  to 
please. 

To  reconquer  the  face  of  twenty  years  ago 
while  preserving  the  vital  energy  which,  in  the 
case  of  woman,  shows  itself  in  bodily  supple- 


114  LIFE 

ness  and  grace  of  movement,  means  that  she 
has  once  more  found  the  joy  of  living.  But  to 
take  on  the  semblance  of  youth  again  and 
retain  the  body  stiffened  by  sixty  years  of 
living,  what  irony ! 

I  would  not,  however,  advise  women  to 
undergo  the  graft  of  the  male  sex  gland. 
Indubitably  they  would  acquire  new  vigor; 
but,  what  they  might  gain  as  regards  strength 
they  would  lose  in  grace. 

In  fact,  after  similar  graftings  on  she-goats 
and  on  ewe-lambs,  I  have  noticed  a  species  of 
perversion  of  the  maternal  instinct,  hence  a 
change  in  their  psychic  state,  in  their  affective 
sentiments.  And  the  body  might  undergo 
changes  no  less  unfavorable  in  the  case  of 
woman.  Man's  distinguishing  signs— mus- 
taches, beard,  heavy  voice —are  also  depend- 
ent on  his  sex  gland,  and  these  are  all 
things  which  woman  has  no  wish  to  acquire. 
Incidentally,  woman  has  no  need  of  borrowing 
from  man  something  contrary  to  her  nature. 
In  her  youth  she  gives  evidence  of  such  an  ex- 
altation of  all  her  faculties,  such  a  running 


LIFE  115 

over  of  vital  energy,  that  without  doubt  she 
possesses  a  gland  of  her  own,  analogous  to 
man's  gland.  Is  it  to  be  found  in  the  ovaries? 
I  believe  it  is.  As  in  the  case  of  man,  the 
ardors  of  life  in  woman  correspond  to  the 
most  intense  period  of  her  sexual  life,  and 
there  is,  assuredly,  a  direct  connection  be- 
tween the  functions  of  the  ovaries  and  those  of 
all  the  other  organs. 

In  fact,  the  ovariotomy  practiced  upon 
young  women,  far  from  their  menopause, 
diminishes  their  vitality,  and  slows  up  their 
nutritive  exchanges — hence  an  adiposity  al- 
ways strongly  marked—and  it  often  troubles 
their  psychic  state  of  being.  This  change  is 
less  noticeable  during  the  first  years  following 
the  operation,  because  the  organism  benefits 
by  the  ovarian  secretion  which  the  tissues  have 
stored  up,  yet  in  the  long  run  the  symptoms 
grow  more  marked,  and  a  premature  sub- 
sidence shows  itself  in  all  manifestations  of 
intellectual  and  physical  life.  Yet  this  change 
is  far  from  being  as  marked  as  that  observed 
in  the  case  of  man  after  castration.  Is  this 


116  LIFE 

due  to  the  fact  that  the  male  sex  gland 
secretes  a  liquid  more  active  than  the  anal- 
ogous female  gland,  or  does  woman  receive  the 
energy  which  she  shows'  during  youth  from 
still  other  glands  called  upon  to  supplement 
the  weakness  of  her  ovarian  secretions  ?  It  is 
difficult  to  answer  this  question.  The  study  of 
the  internal  secretions  of  the  ovaries  has,  in 
fact,  not  advanced  very  far.  We  have  not  as 
yet  been  able  to  determine  whether  this  secre- 
tion is  produced  by  the  epithelial  cells  of  the 
ovaries,  or  whether  it  is  secreted  by  the  yellow 
bodies  which  form  in  the  ovaries  after  the 
bursting  of  the  Graafian  follicles  and  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  ovules.  New  researches  will 
therefore  be  necessary  which  will  not  delay 
bringing  about  a  solution  of  the  problem  in 
which  women  have  so  great  an  interest. 

The  graft  of  a  young  ovary  in  full  activity 
might,  very  probably,  breathe  into  woman  a 
new  vital  energy  adapted  to  her  constitution. 
In  the  meanwhile  I  can  only  offer  this  consola- 
tion: the  mortality  statistics  of  every  land 
prove  that  women  live  much  longer  than  men. 


LIFE  117 

Hence  they  already  have  the  advantage  of  us 
and  consequently  may  still  wait  a  few  more 
years  before  the  experiments  in  course  of  de- 
velopment bring  them  the  remedy  which  is  to 
intensify  and  prolong  their  existence. 

As  to  men,  I  have  every  reason  to  hope  that, 
from  the  present  moment  forward  they  may 
benefit  by  the  new  acquisitions  of  experi- 
mental science.  The  graft  of  the  testicle  will 
suffice  in  the  majority  of  cases.  In  others,  it 
will  be  necessary  to  add  to  it  a  graft  of  the 
thyroid  gland  as  well.  These  two  glands  are, 
in  fact,  intimately  united.  The  atrophy  of  one 
often  entails  the  atrophy  of  the  other.  Both 
play  a  capital  part  in  our  organism,  and  while 
the  sex  gland  augments  the  energy  of  the 
nobler  cells  of  our  body  and  supports  them 
in  their  resistance  against  the  invasion  of  the 
conjunctive  cells,  the  thyroid  gland  abates,  or 
to  be  precise,  modifies  the  activity  of  these  con- 
junctive cells  and  prevents  them  from  multi- 
plying too  rapidly,  to  the  detriment  of  our  life. 

Hence  the  thyroid  gland  is  a  precious  auxil- 
ia?y  in  the  struggle  which  our  specialized  cells 


118  LIFE 

maintain  against  the  conjunctive  cells,  and,  in 
view  of  this,  its  graft  may  at  times  be  indi- 
cated. An  attentive  examination,  a  study  of 
the  symptoms  by  which  the  decline  of  each 
gland  is  betrayed,  will  serve  as  a  guide  to  de- 
termine the  line  of  action  marked  out  in  each 
case. 

It  is  an  additional  sacrifice  we  must  demand 
of  the  apes.  As  to  man,  the  grafting  of  one  or 
two  glands  remains  one  of  the  most  favorable 
operations  he  may  be  called  upon  to  undergo. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  future  of  organic  grafting— The  grafting  of  bones, 
of  skin,  of  the  tendons,  of  the  nerves,  of  the  in- 
ternal organs,  and  of  the  glands — Effect  of  the 
internal  secretion  of  the  sex  gland  on  the  intel- 
lectual faculties  and  the  aptitude  for  work — The 
great  services  which  may  be  rendered  the  com- 
munity by  aged  persons,  rich  in  acquired  experi- 
ence and  accumulated  knowledge,  owing  to  the 
graft  of  the  sex  gland — The  prolongation  of  life. 

WE  have  just  studied  the  effect  of  the  graft 
of  the  sex  gland  on  the  organism.  Can 
this  method  be  generalized  ?  Can  we  make  our 
body  undergo  the  same  treatment  in  an  oper- 
ating room  to  which  we  subject  a  machine  in  a 
repair-shop,  when  one  of  its  parts  has  been 
rendered  useless?  Evidently  the  conditions 
are  not  the  same  in  both  cases.  Not  only  do 
we  not  know  how  to  construct  the  human  ma- 
chine, but  we  are  not  even  capable  of  manufac- 
turing the  least  one  of  its  organs.  In  order 

119 


120  LIFE 

to  replace  them  we  are  obliged  to  make  use  of 
the  organs  which  nature  has  formed  in  bodies 
similar  to  our  own.  And  therein  lies  the  great 
difficulty.  The  advance  actually  realized  by 
science  allows  us  to  replace  an  organ  worn  or 
destroyed  by  another,  on  condition,  however, 
that  we  find  the  spare  organ. 

As  regards  the  bones,  the  problem  is  simple 
enough.  From  primitive  times  we  have  re- 
tained a  bone  which  was  serviceable  to  us  in 
climbing  trees.  Yet  since  we  make  but  little 
use  of  this  form  of  exercise,  this  bone  is  of  only 
mediocre  advantage  to  us.  Hence  it  may  be 
removed  without  any  damage  done  to  our 
walking  or  standing.  Running  animals,  such 
as  the  horse  and  the  dromedary,  whose  ances- 
tors were  also  running  animals,  possess  this 
bone  only  in  an  altogether  rudimentary  state. 
The  bone  in  question  is  the  fibula,  found  beside 
the  tibia.  The  latter  is  sufficiently  solid  to  be 
able  to  dispense  with  its  neighbor's  assistance. 

When  we  have  to  repair  a  fracture  of  one  of 
our  bones — such  cases  were  frequent  during 
the  war,  and  still  occur  often  enough  as  a  re- 


FIG.  32 

Louis  R.  Before  the  operation :  the  forearm  is  twisted  out- 
ward. The  wounded  man  is  obliged  to  support  it,  the  radius 
showing  a  loss  of  osseous  substance. 


FIG.  33 

Louis  R.  Two  months  and  a  half  after  the  operation.  The 
forearm  is  straight.  The  wounded  man  executes  any  move- 
ment with  ease. 


LIFE  121 

suit  of  accidents  or  maladies— it  is  easy  for  us 
to  borrow  part  of  someone's  fibula  and  fit  it  in 
between  the  two  ends  of  the  broken  bone.  We 
were  fortunate  enough  to  be  able  to  give  the 
wounded  in  our  hospital,  from  the  beginning 
of  the  month  of  October,  1914,  the  benefit  of 
this  method  of  bone-grafting,  fathered  by  the 
great  Lyons  surgeon,  Oilier  (Pigs.  32,  33). 

We  can  also  find  the  material  for  the  graft 
on  the  patient  himself,  when  it  is  a  question  of 
replacing  a  tendon  which  has  been  torn  out. 
We  possess  tendons  large  enough  to  allow  us 
to  borrow  from  them,  a  loan  which,  inciden- 
tally, may  also  be  obtained  from  the  abdominal 
aponeurosis,  that  large  and  resistant  mem- 
brane which  doubles  the  muscular  and  cuta- 
neous wall  of  the  abdomen. 

The  skin  may  also  be  replaced  without  much 
difficulty,  either  by  borrowing  skin  from  a  cov- 
ered place  in  order  to  benefit  a  place  exposed 
to  view,  as  we  had  an  opportunity  of  doing  for 
a  young  girl  whose  face  and  hands  had  been 
horribly  burned,  by  using  for  our  grafting  ma- 
terial the  foetal  membranes  which  envelop  the 


122  LIFE 

child  at  birth  (Pigs.  34,  35).  It  is  also  easy 
enough  to  replace  a  section  of  artery  in  the 
case  of  aneurism,  when  the  dilated  coats  of  the 
vessel,  forming  a  tumor,  are  ready  to  burst, 
which  inevitably  brings  about  the  death  of  the 
patient.  In  this  case  one  removes  the  arteries 
of  a  corpse  immediately  after  death,  and  pre- 
serves them  in  a  refrigerator  ready  for  use  at 
the  proper  moment. 

The  same  procedure  may  be  employed  when 
we  are  confronted  with  the  substitution  of  a 
destroyed  articulation.  Kuttener,  on  June  4, 
1910,  replaced  the  articulation  of  a  knee  at- 
tacked by  tumor  by  an  analogous  articulation 
removed  three  hours  after  death  from  a  pa- 
tient in  his  hospital,  and  preserved  for  twenty- 
four  hours  on  ice.  The  fact  was  established 
that  on  June  19,  1911,  a  year  after  the  opera- 
tion, the  patient,  who  had  been  at  home  for 
six  months,  stood  without  support,  walked 
without  the  aid  of  any  mechanism,  and  carried 
out  all  the  movements  of  flexion  and  extension 
with  his  borrowed  knee.  On  December  18, 
1915,  we  presented  at  the  Societe  de  Biologie, 


FIG.  34 

Young  girl  with  burned  face  and  hands.     Photograph  taken 
the  day  before  the  operation. 


FIG.  35 
The  same  young  girl  a  year  after  the  graft  of  foetal  membranes. 


FIG.  36 

Dog,  No.  12,  fifteen  months  after  operation.     The  graft  was 
made  on  the  metacarpophalangeal  articulations  of  the  left  leg. 


LIFE  123 

dogs  walking  with  grafted  articulations,  fif- 
teen months  after  the  operation  (Fig.  36). 

Fragments  of  nerves  may  also  be  employed 
in  the  same  manner  to  replace  those  which 
have  been  destroyed,  and  it  is  possible  thus  to 
cure  muscular  paralysis  resulting  from  sim- 
ilar lesions. 

The  difficulties  increase,  however,  though 
they  are  not  insurmountable,  when  one  at- 
tempts to  graft  an  internal  organ  or  a  whole 
member.  Thus  it  has  been  possible  to  graft 
ovaries  upon  women  who  were  sterile,  or  who 
had  been  surgically  deprived  of  these  organs, 
by  borrowing  them  from  another  woman  in 
process  of  an  operation  necessitating  the  re- 
moval of  the  matrix.  Even  in  this  last  case, 
no  matter  how  useful  the  preservation  of  the 
ovaries  might  be  for  the  maintenance  of  her 
vital  energy,  the  woman  could  without  disad- 
vantages sacrifice  one  of  them  for  another  of 
her  sex. 

Morrice,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1895, 
thus  obtained  a  good  result,  and  the  woman  in 
whom  he  had  transplanted  the  borrowed  ova- 


124  LIFE 

ries  gave  birth  on  March  15,  1906,  to  a  girl 
weighing  seven  and  a  half  pounds. 

We  have  already  recorded  elsewhere  the 
similar  result  which  had  obtained  by  grafting 
on  an  ewe-lamb,  after  having  removed  her  own 
ovaries,  the  ovaries  of  another  ewe  of  the  same 
drop. 

The  grafting  of  kidneys  has  also  been  real- 
ized, but  only  on  cats  and  dogs,  by  Carrel.  It 
has  not  as  yet  been  carried  out  in  the  case  of 
man,  and  yet,  in  certain  instances,  only  the 
grafting  of  this  organ  will  save  the  patient. 
Thus  it  is  possible  to  combat  tuberculosis  of 
one  kidney  by  its  removal ;  yet  when  the  second 
is  in  turn  removed,  the  substitution  of  another 
is  the  only  thing  to  prevent  the  fatal  issue.  The 
kidney  of  a  healthy  man,  killed  by  accident, 
and  at  once  removed,  might  answer  for  this 
operation.  Could  that  of  one  of  the  superior 
apes  be  employed  in  such  a  case  ?  The  future 
will  tell  us.  Yet  what  may  already  be  looked 
forward  to  is  the  grafting  on  men  of  their 
glands :  these  essential  organs  which  command 
the  functions  of  all  our  tissues. 


LIFE  125 

Opotherapy,  which  consists  in  administer- 
ing the  glands  of  animals,  when  our  own  fail 
us,  represents  an  excellent  treatment,  but  a 
palliative  one.  In  order  to  support  the  heart- 
beat, and  the  contractions  of  the  blood-vessels, 
the  suprarenal  gland  pours  the  necessary 
quantity  of  the  precious  liquid  into  the  blood 
at  every  moment.  All  the  glands  act  in  the 
same  manner;  their  functions  are  continuous 
and  adjusted  to  our  needs ;  while  the  absorp- 
tion of  glands,  by  no  matter  what  form  of 
medication,  cannot  help  but  be  clumsy.  Its 
effect,  under  these  .conditions,  necessarily 
brutal,  in  no  wise  conforms  to  the  slow  and 
continual  processes  of  nature. 

Not  long  since  opotherapy  represented  a 
notable  step  in  advance  in  the  treatment  of  a 
large  number  of  our  ailments,  but  at  present 
we  can  do  better.  As  we  increase  our  knowl- 
edge of  our  own  body  and  dare  more,  our  field 
of  action  continues  to  extend.  Surgery  has 
attained  its  culminating  point  in  the  art  of 
removing  a  large  number  of  our  organs,  and  in 
curing  the  malady  from  which  we  are  suffer- 


126  LIFE 

ing;  but  it  deprives  us  of  a  function  whicli 
formerly  played  a  part  in  our  constitution. 
The  operation  saves  our  life  but  curtails  us 
bodily  at  the  same  time.  The  ideal  toward 
which  our  efforts  should  tend  is  to  replace 
that  which  has  been  taken  from  us,  to  return 
to  our  body  the  organ  of  which  we  have  been 
deprived,  since  nothing  in  our  organism  is 
superfluous.  One  may  live  without  a  kidney, 
without  a  leg  or  an  arm,  yet  one  lives  but 
poorly.  The  surgeon  rejoices  in  the  operation 
brilliantly  performed,  the  patient  exults  be- 
cause he  has  escaped  death,  yet  the  life  of  the 
individual  suffers  and  is  diminished  as  a  re- 
sult. Let  us  leave  to  the  surgery  of  our  fathers 
the  part  it  has  always  played  in  delivering  us 
from  tumors,  suppurations,  etc.,  but  for  the 
new  surgery  born  to-day,  a  far  greater  field  of 
action  opens.  This  surgery  of  the  future  lies 
in  the  grafting  of  our  organs,  our  tissues  and 
our  glands.  The  path  has  already  been  blazed 
by  the  first  pioneers.  Despite  all  the  tenacity 
of  routine,  all  the  difficulty  the  human  spirit 
finds  in  liberating  itself  from  the  constraint  of 


LIFE  127 

reigning  ideas,  the  new  method  will  end  by 
imposing  its  precepts. 

We  have  a  horror  of  decrepitude,  of  decay, 
of  the  infirmities  of  old  age.  Before  we  come 
to  them  each  of  us  has  tasted  the  joys  which 
the  expenditure  of  our  energy  has  procured. 
We  have  learned  to  love  work,  and  it  has  been 
pleasant  for  us  to  feel  that  we  have  been  use- 
ful, that  our  efforts  have  contributed  to  the 
happiness  of  those  near  and  dear  to  us,  and  to 
the  success  of  some  cherished  idea. 

And  at  that  moment,  when  the  experience 
we  have  acquired  allows  us  to  discern  the  mis- 
takes we  have  made  and  recognize  the  deeds 
which  time  has  justified,  at  that  moment,  when 
our  spirit  is  ripe  for  the  creation  of  great  and 
beautiful  works,  our  power  to  work  abandons 
us.  Memory  weakens,  thought  lags,  effort  be- 
comes painful. 

[We  age  too  soon,  we  die  before  we  are  able 
to  accomplish  our  task. 

To  restore  to  those  men  whose  work  has 
grown  with  their  years,  whose  spirit  is  en- 
riched by  accumulated  knowledge,  whose  soul 


128  LIFE 

has  been  softened  by  contact  with  all  the  suf- 
fering experienced  or  witnessed  during  their 
long  existence,  to  endow  such  men  with  new 
energy,  and  once  more  make  them  fit  for  pro- 
ductive labor,  is  to  accomplish  a  work  of  social 
usefulness,  to  contribute  to  the  world's  prog- 
ress. 

Those  who  have  seen  in  the  grafting  of 
the  sex  gland— which  restores  all  energies 
— no  more  than  the  renewal  of  the  source  of 
those  pleasures  for  which  age  has  set  a  term, 
have  only  grasped  a  small  side  of  the  problem. 
The  question  concerns  a  higher  and  more  uni- 
versal domain.  The  graft  of  this  gland  will 
not  merely  contribute  to  the  conservation  and 
multiplication  of  the  human  race,  and  of  those 
animals  whose  life  we  are  interested  in  intensi- 
fying, but  also  to  the  duration  of  our  intel- 
lectual powers  and  our  ability  to  work.  The 
ideal  toward  which  our  efforts  tend  is  to  pre- 
serve life  in  the  plenitude  of  its  diverse  and 
multiple  manifestations,  to  force  death  to  re- 
treat to  its  farthest  limits. 

May  10,  1920. 


COMMUNICATIONS 

BY 

M.  ED.  RETTERER 

Professor  at  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  of  the 
University  of  Paris 

TO  THE 

French  Association  for  the  Study  of  Cancer 

AND   TO   THE 

Biological  Society 


Translated  by 
ADOLPH   ELWYN 

Asrtitant  Professor  of  Anatomy,  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons,  Columbia  University 


Extract  from  the  Communication  of  M.  Ed. 
Retterer  to  the  French  Association  for  the 
Study  of  Cancer. 

SESSION  OP  DECEMBER  15, 1919 

METAPLASIA 

I  should  like  to  submit  to  you  the  results  which 
I  have  obtained  from  various  organs  given  to  me 
by  my  friend  Serge  Voronoff.  In  order  to  study 
the  influence  which  the  testicles  exert  on  the  whole 
of  the  organism  S.  Voronoff  has  made  experi- 
ments ,of  testicular  grafts  on  rams  and  goats,  and 
at  the  Twenty-seventh  Congress  of  Surgery  he 
has  presented  the  general  results  obtained  by  him. 
He  has  been  kind  enough  to  entrust  to  me  the 
specimens  of  the  grafted  testicles  for  the  study  of 
the  evolution  of  their  tissues.  In  order  to  fore- 
stall misapprehension  I  add  that  these  testicles 
have  been  fixed  while  fresh  in  picro-f ormol-acetic. 
After  imbedding  in  paraffine  I  have  made  serial 
sections  of  from  5  to  7  /*  which  I  have  stained 
diversely.  The  preparations  which  I  shall  have 
the  honor  to  submit  to  you  will  show  you  that 
I  am  able  to  make  sections  which  are  neither 

131 


132  APPENDIX 

oblique  nor  too  thick,  and  that  I  can  stain  them 
in  a  precise  manner.  If  I  insist  on  these  tedious 
details,  it  is  because  dissatisfied  persons  have 
been  pleased  to  insinuate  that  my  conclusions 
were  founded  on  a  defective  technique. 

Voronoff  has  grafted  testicles  even  in  the  tunic 
of  the  scrotum.  Although  the  blood  circulation 
may  be  interrupted  or  suspended,  the  grafted 
tissue  thus  finds  itself  in  its  natural  environment. 
Also  the  nutritive  plasma  goes  to  the  superficial 
portions  of  the  transplanted  fragments,  as  well 
as  to  the  cortical  portions  of  the  entire  testicles. 
When  these  are  young  and  still  possess  a  thin  al- 
buginea,  the  cortical  portions  survive  while  the 
central  ones  die. 

In  the  surviving  parts  nutrition  is  enfeebled. 
However,  I  have  found  even  at  the  end  of  one 
year  some  seminiferous  tubules  with  spermatids 
and  heads  of  spermatozoa.  The  grafted  testicle 
came  from  a  young  goat  which  had  not  yet  formed 
spermatozoa.  Consequently  the  spermatozoa 
have  developed  in  the  grafted  tissue. 

Figure  37  represents  at  a  high  magnification 
the  structure  of  a  portion  of  the  testicle  of  the 
goat,  taken  a  year  after  the  graft.  At  1, 1,  there 
are  fibrous  trabeculse  containing  cells  with 
elongated  nuclei  and  simulating  smooth  muscle 
fibers.  At  2,  2,  there  are  masses  formed  by  nuclei 
joined  by  a  common  protoplasm.  They  resemble 
blind  follicles  of  the  epithelial  stage,  but  the 
epithelial  cells  have  a  clear  and  poorly  defined 
protoplasm.  At  their  periphery  they  pass  with- 


FIG.  37 

Portion  of  a  grafted  testicle;  one  year  after  the  graft. 
(Ocul.  1;  obj.  7.  Stiassnie.)  1,  1,  fibrous  strands;  2,  2,  rem- 
nants of  seminiferous  tubules  (blind  follicles)  ;  3,  3,  reticu- 
lated tissue  showing  empty  spaces. 


FIG.  38 

Two  blind  follicles  of  Figure  1  with  the  intervening  reticu- 
lated tissue.     (Ocul.  6;  immersion  obj.  l/15e  Stiassnie.) 


APPENDIX  133 

out  trace  of  a  basement  membrane  into  a  reticu- 
lated tissue  in  which  a  number  of  free  elements 
are  present  as  a  result  of  the  dissolution  of  a 
part  of  the  protoplasm.  Comparing  the  grafted 
tissue  with  the  testicles  which  had  been  grafted, 
and  especially  with  grafted  tissue  obtained  two 
or  three  months  after  the  graft,  it  is  easy  to 
understand  the  evolution  of  the  grafted  tissue. 
In  the  normal  testicle  the  tubules  .10  to  .12  mm. 
in  diameter  are  contiguous  and  attached  to  each 
other  and  only  at  the  hilus  is  there  present  a 
small  amount  of  interstitial  connective  tissue. 
After  the  graft  the  interstitial  connective  tissue 
and  that  which  constitutes  the  basement  mem- 
brane develop  into  fibrous  strands  (1).  As  re- 
gards the  seminiferous  tubule,  its  outer  epithelial 
cells  are  transformed  into  a  reticulated  tissue 
forming  an  envelope  for  the  remaining  central 
portion  of  the  tubule.  The  latter  exhibits  the 
structure  of  an  epithelial  syncytium  and  simulates 
in  the  section  a  blind  follicle  at  an  early  stage. 

Figure  38  represents  at  a  higher  magnification 
two  remnants  of  epithelial  tubules  with  the  inter- 
vening reticulated  tissue.  Between  the  reticulated 
tissue  containing  faintly  staining  threads  and  the 
epithelial  remnant,  there  are  hematoxylinophilic 
filaments  which  seem  to  penetrate  into  the  epithe- 
lial remains.  The  cells  of  the  latter  themselves 
have  a  clear  cytoplasm  in  process  of  dissolution. 
However,  in  several  places  may  be  seen  granular 
and  hematoxylinophilic  filaments. 

Figure  39  represents  a  portion  of  testicle  two 


134  APPENDIX 

months  after  the  graft.  Two  seminiferous 
tubules,  one  in  transverse  and  the  other  in  oblique 
section,  occupy  the  center  of  a  mass  picturing 
roughly  a  blind  follicle.  The  epithelium  of  the 
tubules  corresponds  to  the  central  layers  of  a 
normal  tubule.  The  nuclei  are  large  and  have  the 
structure  of  epithelial  cells;  the  cytoplasm  is 
clear  and  the  cellular  boundaries  are  effaced.  The 
border  of  these  epithelial  remnants  and  of  the 
sheath  which  encloses  them  is  more  sharply  de-, 
fined,  especially  at  the  lower  portion  of  the  left 
tubule,  and  at  the  entire  periphery  of  the  right 
one.  The  large  nuclei  of  the  epithelial  remnant 
are  followed  by  smaller  and  denser  chromatic 
nuclei  contained  in  a  denser  and  better  staining 
cytoplasm.  As  one  passes  from  the  epithelial 
remnant  into  the  surrounding  tissue,  the  cyto- 
plasm differentiates  more  and  more  into  a  hema- 
toxylinophilic  reticulum  and  a  hyaloplasm. 

Figure  3  represents  a  stage  intermediate  be- 
tween the  epithelium  and  the  reticulated  epi- 
thelium containing  empty  spaces.  I  have  de- 
scribed and  pictured  similar  stages  in  the  tonsils. 
The  cells  of  the  tubules  or  epithelial  buds  become 
enlarged,  then  little  by  little  develop  into  a  tissue 
of  small  cells  in  such  a  manner  that  several 
tubules  give  birth  to  an  ovoid  mass  or  blind 
follicle. 

One  might  desire  to  explain  the  last  picture  by 
saying  that  the  interstitial  connective  tissue  pro- 
liferates and  gives  rise  to  a  young  tissue  which 
strangles  and  chokes  the  epithelium  of  the  semi- 


i':£s_i?fe 


FIG.  39 

Portion  of  goat's  testicle,  two  months  after  the  graft.  (Ocul. 
2;  obj.  7  Stiassnie.)  Two  seminiferous  tubules,  each  sur- 
rounded by  a  shell  of  reticulated  tissue  whose  spaces  are  filled 
with  hyaloplasm. 


APPENDIX  135 

niferous  tubules.  This  hypothesis  is  unfounded, 
since  neither  I  nor  previous  workers  have  been 
able  to  observe  a  single  mitotic  figure  in  the  inter- 
stitial connective  tissue.  If  the  connective  tissue 
increases  at  the  same  time  that  the  seminiferous 
tubule  diminishes  in  caliber,  it  can  only  be  due  to 
the  transformation  of  the  epithelial  layers  into 
a  connective  tissue  which  at  first  is  reticulated, 
and  later  fibrous. 

Hence  as  in  the  development  of  the  tonsils, 
Peyer's  patches  and  the  pouch  of  Fabricius,  we 
witness  the  formation  of  blind  follicles.  Several 
groups  of  epithelial  tubules,  comprising  from  six 
to  eight  ducts,  form  ovoid  masses  .3  to  .5  mm., 
which  at  first  consist  of  epithelial  cords,  and 
which  finally  form  but  a  mass  of  reticulated 
tissue. 

As  a  result  of  the  graft,  the  epithelial  elements 
of  the  seminiferous  tubules,  poorly  nourished, 
change  their  structure  and  evolutionary  cycle.  In- 
stead of  producing  spermatozoa,  the  greater  part 
becomes  transformed  into  reticulated  tissue  which 
represents  the  second  stage  in  the  evolution  of 
the  epithelial  element.  When  the  testicle  finds 
itself  placed  under  conditions  where  it  no  longer 
forms  spermatozoa,  the  surviving  epithelium 
evolves  in  another  direction  and  produces  differ- 
ent elements.  Its  evolution  as  an  external  gland 
thus  suppressed,  it  continues  to  furnish  elements 
for  internal  secretion.  In  the  digestive  tube  we 
witness  a  similar  division  of  labor  in  the  parts 
which  serve  only  as  passage  ways  (pharynx, 


136  APPENDIX 

pouch  of  Fabricius)  or  in  which  food  does  not  re- 
main long  (appendix).  The  epithelial  invagina- 
tions  or  open  glands  become  transformed  into 
blind  follicles. 

To  sum  up,  the  surviving  portions  of  the  grafted 
testicle  may  undergo  an  evolution  which  I  might 
call  regressive.  The  epithelial  cells,  poorly  nour- 
ished, acquire  a  clear  cytoplasm  and  divide  into 
small  elements  which  constitute  a  reticulated 
tissue.  The  dissolution  of  a  part  of  the  cytoplasm 
transforms  the  testicular  tissue  into  an  empty 
meshed  mass  or  lymphoid  tissue.  That  which 
demonstrates  the  reality  of  the  dissolution  and 
resorption  of  the  testicular  plasma,  is  the  fact 
that  the  presence  of  the  grafted  testicle  assures 
to  the  subject  all  the  secondary  sexual  characters 
(impetuosity  of  the  male). 

Communication  of  M.  Ed.  Retterer  to  the 
Biological  Society 

SESSION  OF  OCTOBER  18, 1919 

THE     DEVELOPMENT     OF     TESTICULAR 
GRAFTS  IN  THE  GOAT 

At  the  Twenty-eighth  Congress  of  Surgery,  M. 
S.  Voronoff  presented  the  general  results  which 
he  had  obtained  regarding  the  influence  which  the 
grafted  testicles  exert  on  the  organism  as  a  whole. 
As  far  as  it  concerns  the  evolution  of  the  grafted 


APPENDIX  137 

tissues,  here  is  what  I  have  observed  in  the  speci- 
mens which  M.  Voronoff  has  entrusted  to  me. 

I.  Testicles  of  very  young  goats  which  have  been 
used  as  grafts. — The  testicles  are  still  in  a  pre- 
spermatogenic  stage  with  tubules  .10  to  .12  mm., 
lined  by  several  layers  of  epithelial  cells  without 
spermatids  or  spermatozoa.    The  interstitial  con- 
nective tissue  has  an  extent  of  but  2  to  5  /*  in  the 
region  of  the  hilus,  and  where  the  tubules  touch 
each  other  there  is  only  a  thin  membrane  of  1  or 
2  fj,  in  thickness.    Very  rare  are  the  ovid  or  poly- 
hedral cells  with  abundant  cytoplasm  and  fatty 
granules  which  are  known  as  the  interstitial  cells. 
They  are  always  isolated. 

II.  Fragments  of  testicle  grafted  in  the  vaginal 
tunic  of  a  castrated  goat,  18  days  after  grafting 
(No.  47). — The  seminiferous  tubules  have  a  mean 
caliber  of  .10  mm.     The  interstitial  connective 
tissue  occupies  an  extent  equal  to  that  of  the 
tubules.     The  greater  part  of  the  tubules  have 
still  a  lining  similar  to  that  described  above,  but 
several  show  spermatids  and  heads  of  sperma- 
tozoa in  shape  of  ovid  mallets. 

III.  Entire  testicle  grafted  under  the  same  con- 
dition, 12  days  after  the  graft  (No.  49). — Necrosis 
of  the  epithelial  cells. 

IV.  Entire  testicle  grafted  under  the  same  con- 
dition, two  months  after  the  graft  (No.  60-B). — 
Necrosis  of  the  epithelial  cells. 

V.  Fragments  of  testicles  grafted  under  the 
same    condition,    two  months    after    the    graft 
(No.  60-A). — In  the  sections  of  the  fragments 


138  APPENDIX 

may  be  observed  three  zones  of  tissue.  The  most 
superficial  zone  is  connective  in  nature ;  the  mid- 
dle is  reticulated  and  contains  blind  follicles ;  the 
third  or  deep  zone  is  composed  of  seminiferous 
ducts  about  .03  to  .05  mm.  in  diameter.  At  the 
boundary  of  the  two  latter  zones  one  may  observe 
the  manner  in  which  epithelial  cells  become  trans- 
formed into  reticulated  tissue  and  blind  follicles. 
Actually,  groups  of  seminiferous  tubules  compris- 
ing two  to  ten  ducts  form  ovoid  masses  of  .3  to 
.5  mm.  and  constitute  a  blind  follicle.  In  these 
follicles  the  epithelial  cells  of  the  tubules  are 
multiplying,  and  though  the  cytoplasm  still  pos- 
sesses the  same  staining  properties  as  epithelium, 
it  is  strongly  reticulated  and  in  process  of  trans- 
formation into  connective  tissue.  In  other  places 
the  epithelial  tubules  do  not  group  themselves  into 
follicles,  but  from  the  periphery,  toward  the 
center  the  epithelial  cells  arrange  themselves  in 
concentric  layers  of  very  chromatic  nuclei,  while 
the  cytoplasm  becomes  reticulated.  The  reticular 
tissue  is  destitute  of  interstitial  cells. 

VI.  Entire  testicle  grafted  in  the  vaginal  tunic 
of  a  castrated  goai,  12  months  after  the  graft 
(No.  15). — Testicle  of  a  very  young  goat,  15  mm. 
long  and  5  to  7  mm.  in  width.  The  testicle  had  a 
thick  albuginea  of  .15  mm.  The  testicle  consists 
of  a  series  of  cords  joined  to  each  other  by  a 
reticulated  connective  tissue.  The  cords,  cut 
transversely,  are  these  rounded  or  ovoid  masses 
the  majority  of  which  have  a  diameter  of  .05  mm., 
but  there  are  some  which  attain  a  thickness  of  .1 


APPENDIX  139 

to  .2  mm.  They  consist  of  a  common  cytoplasm 
strewn  with  numerous  small  and  very  chromatic 
nuclei.  Their  periphery  passes,  without  a  base- 
ment membrane,  directly  into  the  reticulated  con- 
nective tissue  which  at  certain  places  is  more 
abundant  than  the  included  cords,  but  which  in 
general  occupies  only  half  the  extent  of  the  sum- 
total  of  cords.  Cut  transversely  these  form 
masses  of  .04  to  .05  mm.  composed  of  a  common 
cytoplasm  containing  dense  and  very  chromatic 
nuclei  of  5  to  6  p.  Other  cords  .02  to  .01  mm.  in 
diameter  have  a  center  of  the  same  structure, 
while  their  cortex  consists  of  two  or  three  con- 
centric layers  formed  by  similar  nuclei  but  con- 
taining a  more  abundant  and  fibrillated  inter- 
cellular substance. 

The  tissue  which  joins  these  follicular  masses 
is  plainly  connective  in  nature  with  poorly  stain- 
ing nuclei.  Interstitial  cells  are  absent. 

VII.  Graft  of  an  entire  testicle  of  a  four 
months'  old  goat,  three  months  after  the  graft 
(No.  61). — This  testicle  40  mm.  long  and  30  mm. 
wide,  was  enclosed  in  an  albuginea  3  mm.  thick. 
At  the  end  of  three  months  all  the  elements  are  in 
process  of  necrosis.  The  cytoplasm  is  granular 
and  nuclei  are  absent. 

Results  and  critique. — What  becomes  of  the 
tissues  of  the  grafted  testicle?  In  Batrachians, 
Mantegazza  (1860),  Herlitza  (1900),  Solachas 
(1907);  in  Birds,  Berchthold  (1849),  E.  Wagner 
(1851),  Lode  (1895),  Pezard  (1918)  have  observed 
that  the  seminiferous  tubules  of  the  graft  con- 


140  APPENDIX 

tinue  for  some  time  to  form  spermatozoa,  but 
little  by  little  the  epithelium  degenerates,  while 
there  develops  between  them  a  plastic  exudate, 
then  a  fibrous  or  connective  tissue  which  does  not 
have  the  structure  of  the  classic  interstitial  tissue. 
The  testicle  of  mammals,  when  transplanted  into 
the  peritoneal  cavity  or  underneath  the  skin, 
shows  at  the  end  of  a  certain  time  only  the  cells  of 
Sertoli  which  multiply  by  mitosis  and  become  con- 
verted either  into  giant  cells  or  into  an  indiffer- 
ent epithelium  (Eibbert,  1898;  Maximow,  1899; 
Cevolotto,  1909).  In  1909  Steinbach  grafted  the 
testicles  of  46  young  rats  on  the  internal  surface 
of  the  abdominal  wall.  The  majority  of  the 
grafts  survived.  The  seminal  cells  degenerated 
and  the  seminiferous  tubules  became  lined  by 
only  a  "  succulent "  epithelium.  The  interstitial 
cells  became  more  abundant.  Quite  different  from 
his  predecessors,  S.  Voronoff  has  grafted  the 
testicles  even  in  the  tunic  of  the  scrotum.  Al- 
though the  blood  circulation  may  be  interrupted 
and  suspended,  the  graft  finds  itself  thus  placed 
in  its  natural  environment.  Also  the  nutritive 
plasma  reaches  the  superficial  portions  of  the 
transplanted  fragments,  as  well  as  the  cortical 
portions  of  the  entire  testicle,  when  these  have 
only  a  thin  albuginea.  All  of  the  portions  sup- 
plied by  the  plasma  survive,  the  central  portions 
alone  die. 

In  the  grafts  which  survive  the  nutrition  is 
weakened.  They  show,  however,  some  tubules 
whose  epithelial  cells  differentiate  and  produce 


APPENDIX  141 

heads  of  spermatozoa.  The  majority  of  the  other 
seminiferous  tubules  likewise  survive.  But  the 
developmental  processes  are  retarded  at  the  same 
time  that  the  epithelial  cells  become  changed  into 
a  syncytium  containing  numerous  nuclei,  which 
fills  the  lumen  of  the  tubule.  The  syncytium  is 
then  transformed,  starting  from  the  basement 
membrane,  into  a  reticulated  tissue,  i.e.,  the  cyto- 
plasm differentiates  into  a  hematoxylinophilic 
reticulum  and  a  hyaloplasm.  As  the  hyaloplasm 
subsequently  undergoes  dissolution,  the  reticu- 
lated tissue  at  first  filled,  shows  empty  spaces. 
Thanks  to  this  process  the  interseminiferous  con- 
nective tissue  becomes  more  abundant.  I  have 
never  seen  any  mitotic  figures  in  the  interstitial 
tissue,  hence  it  is  not  the  proliferation  of  the  con- 
nective tissue  cells  which  augments  the  mass  of 
interstitial  tissue. 

As  a  result  of  the  graft,  the  epithelial  elements 
of  the  seminiferous  tubules,  poorly  nourished, 
thus  change  their  structure  and  evolutionary 
cycle.  Instead  of  producing  spermatozoa,  the 
majority  becomes  transformed  into  reticulated 
tissues,  which  represents  their  second  phase  of 
evolution.  In  the  grafted  testicle  the  epithelium 
assumes  at  first  such  form  and  structure  which 
we  find  in  the  anlagas  of  the  pouch  of  Fabricius, 
the  tonsils,  Peyer's  patches,  etc.,  namely  an  epi- 
thelial lining  analogous  to  that  of  open  glands. 
But  little  by  little  this  epithelium  becomes  trans- 
formed into  reticulated  tissue.  Experimentally, 
I  have  succeeded  in  inciting  the  formation  of  fi- 


142  APPENDIX 

brous  nodules  at  the  expense  of  epithelial  buds. 
The  testicular  graft  realizes  the  conditions  which 
are  favorable  to  the  transformation  of  glandular 
epithelium  into  reticulated  tissue.1 

Conclusion. — In  the  grafted  testicle  (entire  or 
part)  there  survive  only  the  superficial  portions 
which  continue  to  receive  the  nutritive  plasma. 
But  the  epithelial  cells  which  survive  modify 
their  structure  and  their  evolution.  Very  few 
continue  to  divide  in  order  to  produce  small  nuclei 
and  heads  of  spermatozoa.  The  majority,  under 
these  new  conditions,  become  transformed  into  a 
syncytial  mass  which  finally  develops  into  reti- 
culated connective  tissue. 

Communication  of  M.  Ed.  Retterer  to  the 
Biological  Society 

SESSION  OF  OCTOBER  25, 1919 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  TESTICULAR 
GEAFTS  IN  THE  EAM 

The  testicular  grafts  which  M.  S.  Voronoff  has 
practiced  on  the  ram  have  been  made  partly 
under  similar  conditions  as  those  of  the  goat,  and 
partly  under  different  conditions.  Their  his- 
tological  study  has  given  me  the  following  results. 

irThis,  so  to  speak,  Internal  evolution  of  epithelium  Is  espe- 
cially accentuated  in  those  portions  of  the  digestive  tube, 
which  serve  only  for  passage  or  where  the  chemical  activity 
is  greatly  reduced  (pharynx,  touxille  colique,  cloaca  of  birds, 
etc.).  (Retterer  et  Lelievre,  1910.) 


APPENDIX  143 

I.  Testicle  of  a  young  ram  which  had  been  used 
as  a  graft. — The  seminiferous  tubules  have   a 
caliber  of  .15  mm.     They  are  attached  to  each 
other,  and  for  the  greater  part  of  their  circum- 
ference are  separated  only  by  a  lamellated  mem- 
brane of  3  to  4  fj,.     At  the  hilus  the  connective 
tissue  is  more  abundant,  but  interstitial  cells  are 
rare.    Each  tubule  is  lined  by  four  or  five  layers 
of  epithelial  cells  forming  a  wall  of  .04  mm.,  and 
enclosing  a  lumen  of  .07  mm.  filled  with  cellular 
detritus.    The  majority  of  the  cells  which  rest  on 
the  basement  membrane  have  a  very  chromatic 
nucleus,  and  only  few  clear  nuclei  containing  a 
nucleolus  are  seen.    The  cells  of  the  middle  layers 
have  a  transparent  cytoplasm  of  15  to  18  M  with 
a  nucleus  of  7  ^  mean  diameter.    They  are  sepa- 
rated from  each  other  by  a  sharply  defined  mem- 
brane.   The  cells  which  border  on  the  lumen  are 
smaller  and  in  process  of  disintegration. 

II.  Graft  of  an  entire  testicle   (No.  70). — A 
year  after  the  graft  the  testicle  has  the  following 
structure.     Instead  of  the  seminiferous  tubules 
there  are  seen  only  epithelial  cords  whose  caliber 
varies  between  .035  and  .040  mm.    The  cords  are 
separated  by  connective  tissue  strands  .02  mm  to 
.05  mm  thick.    Instead  of  the  basement  membrane 
formed  by  a  connective  tissue  strand  there  is  a 
layer  7  /*  thick  composed  of  a  cytoplasm  which 
is  granular  and  stains  red  with  eosin  and  orange, 
like  the  epithelium  of  the  cords.    The  nuclei  con- 
tained in  this  peripheral  layer  are  placed  far 
apart.    The  epithelial  cord  itself  consists  of  the 


144  APPENDIX 

following  elements:  (1)  one  or  two  layers  of  per- 
ipheral nuclei,  (2)  a  central  mass.  The  peripheral 
nuclei  4  to  5  /*  in  diameter  are  rounded  and  very 
chromatic.  The  internuclear  cytoplasm  is  scanty, 
does  not  exceed  1  or  2  /*  in  thickness.  The  central 
portion  is  60  to  70  M  thick  and  comprises  a  mass 
of  cytoplasm  containing  few  nuclei. 

III.  Fragments  of  testicles  grafted  on  the  va- 
ginal tunic  of  an  old  ram  wliose  own  testicles  re- 
mained in  place.  Grafts  taken  14  months  after 
the  operation. — The  seminiferous  cords  have  a 
caliber  of  .06  mm.  to  .10  mm.  The  interstitial 
connective  tissue  has  an  average  thickness  of  .05 
mm.  The  seminiferous  cords,  the  majority  of 
which  no  more  possess  a  central  lumen,  have  a 
varying  structure  according  to  the  region.  At 
the  periphery  of  the  grafted  fragments  the  center 
and  the  middle  layers  are  occupied  by  small 
nuclei  and  flattened  ovoid  filaments  having 
all  the  structural  and  staining  properties  of 
spermatozoa.  Other  cords  contain  large  poly- 
hedrous  epithelial  cells  each  provided  with  a 
nucleus.  Others  again  have  the  structure  of  bands 
of  reticulated  connective  tissue  in  the  center  of 
which  persist  epithelial  cell  masses.  In  the  central 
portions  of  the  grafted  fragments,  the  seminif- 
erous tubules  contain  cytoplasmic  masses  in  pro- 
cess of  degeneration  with  few  or  no  nuclei. 

As  in  the  goat,  the  reticulated  tissue  develops 
in  the  ram  at  the  expense  of  the  epithelial  cells  of 
the  seminiferous  tubules.  These  differentiate, 
beginning  with  the  external  layers,  into  a  retic- 


APPENDIX  145 

ulum  and  a  hyaloplasm.  The  latter  has  a  vary- 
ing fortune.  In  certain  places  it  undergoes  dis- 
solution and  there  remains  only  a  reticular  tissue 
with  empty  meshes.  In  other  places  it  forms  con- 
nective tissue  fibrils,  and  the  testicular  tissue  be- 
comes transformed  into  a  fibrous  mass. 

Results  and  critique. — Though  used  under  con- 
ditions very  little  different  from  the  goat,  the 
testicular  grafts  of  the  ram  develop  as  in  the 
goat.  The  epithelium  continues  at  certain  places 
to  develop  small  nuclei  and  heads  of  spermatozoa. 
But  for  the  larger  part  it  becomes  transformed 
into  reticulated  tissue.  With  this  developmental 
deviation  is  connected  the  question  of  the  influ- 
ence which  the  grafted  tissue  exerts  on  the  other 
tissues  of  the  organism.  In  the  old  ram  (No.  12), 
enfeebled,  fearful  and  showing  a  total  extinction 
of  generative  ardor  and  of  the  "potentia  coe- 
undi,"  the  grafted  tissue  has  caused  the  rebirth 
of  the  "libido  coeundi"  and  the  virile  impetuosity 
of  the  male.  Placed  together  with  a  ewe,  he  has 
covered  and  fecundated  her,  and  the  ewe  has 
thrown  a  vigorous  lamb. 

Which  are  the  elements  of  the  grafted  testicle 
which  modify  the  general  behavior  and  give  to 
the  bearer  the  virile  characters  (vigor,  libido  and 
potentia  coeundi).  It  is  said  that  the  cyptorchids 
present  largely  analogous  manifestations.  They 
are  likewise  observed  after  ligation  of  the  vasa 
deferentes  and  the  action  of  X-rays.  Since  under 
the  last  named  conditions  the  interseminiferous 
connective  tissue  becomes  more  abundant  and 


146  APPENDIX 

richer  in  interstitial  cells,  the  latter  have  been 
regarded  as  forming  a  secretion  which  is  ab- 
sorbed and  acts  on  the  entire  organism  (internal 
secretion).  In  the  grafted  tissue  cellular  division 
in  the  interseminiferous  tissue  is  absent.  Hence 
its  hypertrophy  is  not  due  to  the  proliferation  of 
the  connective  tissue  cells.  Besides,  observers 
have  never  seen  any  mitotic  figures  in  the  inter- 
stitial cells  or  in  the  cells  of  the  connective  tissue. 
The  interstitial  connective  tissue  becomes  more 
abundant  because  the  epithelium  of  the  seminif- 
erous tubules  becomes  transformed  into  reticular 
tissue.  As  regards  the  interstitial  cells,  they  are 
thinly  scattered  and  very  rare  in  the  normal  goat 
and  ram.  It  is  the  connective  tissue  cells  which 
become  filled  with  fat  in  animals  which  are  being 
fattened.  In  the  grafted  testicles  I  have  not  been 
able  to  observe  this.  Consequently  it  is  not  the 
interstitial  cells  which  here  take  charge  of  the 
internal  secretion.1 

Others  (Loisel,  Champy,  Pezard)  maintain 
that  in  the  birds  and  the  batrachians  the  cells  of 
Sertoli  fulfill  this  role.  In  the  grafted  testicles 

1  It  is  well  to  recall  some  of  the  conditions  under  which  the 
interstitial  cells  appear  or  disappear.  In  the  moles  these  cells 
are  abundant  before  rutting  time.  During  the  rut  they  are 
scanty,  after  the  rut,  their  number  increases.  During  hiber- 
nation they  disappear.  In  the  batrachians  and  birds  the  Inter- 
stitial tissue  is  well  developed  before  puberty,  but  becomes  re- 
duced with  the  beginning  of  sexual  activity. 

All  these  facts  agree  with  those  which  we  have  observed  In 
the  goat  and  ram.  The  libido  and  potentia  cceundi,  far  from 
occurring  in  direct  ratio  with  the  number  of  interstitial  cells 
(cells  filled  with  fat),  coincide  with  the  diminution  or  disap- 
pearance of  these  elements.  Besides,  it  is  an  old  saying  that 
a  cock  grown  fat  is  not  a  good  cock. 


APPENDIX  147 

there  no  longer  exist  either  the  cells  of  Sertoli 
or  the  spermatogenic  cells.  The  whole  epithe- 
lium of  the  seminiferous  cords  forms  a  syncytial 
mass  which  at  first  shows  a  reticulum  whose 
meshes  are  filled  with  hyaloplasm,  and  finally  one 
with  empty  meshes. 

In  summing  up  the  evolutionary  phenomena 
observed  in  the  grafted  tissues  we  will  say  that 
the  interseminiferous  tissue  becomes  more  abun- 
dant in  proportion  as  the  seminiferous  cords 
dimmish.  Simultaneously,  the  epithelium  of  the 
cords  becomes  transformed  into  reticular  tissue 
whose  meshes  are  filled  with  hyaloplasm.  Then 
the  hyaloplasm  liquefies  and  becomes  absorbed, 
hence  the  reticulum  with  empty  meshes.  It  is  to 
the  production  and  resorption  of  this  plasma, 
formed  by  the  originally  epithelial  testicular 
cells,  that  we  must  attribute,  in  our  opinion,  the 
influence  exerted  by  the  testicle  on  the  other 
tissues  of  the  organism.  In  the  testicle,  as  in  the 
liver  and  pancreas,  the  agent  of  external  and  in- 
ternal secretion  is  the  epithelial  cell  which  is  at 
once  exocrine  and  endocrine.  In  the  grafted  testi- 
cle the  epithelial  cell  becomes  changed  and  func- 
tions only  in  an  endocrine  capacity. 

Conclusion. — The  epithelial  cells  of  the  seminif- 
erous tubules  lose  during  their  transformation 
into  reticular  tissue,  a  plasma  whose  resorption 
determines  the  secondary  sexual  characters. 


148  APPENDIX 

Communication  of  M.  Ed.  Retterer  to  the 
Biological  Society 

SESSION  OF  NOVEMBER  8,  1919 


TESTICLES  OF  THE  AGED 

The  evolution  of  testicular  grafts  has  defi- 
nitely demonstrated  to  me  several  facts  which 
I  had  surmised  from  a  study  of  the  testicle  of  the 
aged.  I  have,  therefore,  undertaken  again  the 
study  of  the  latter  and  following  are  the  results 
which  I  obtained  from  old  men  of  sixty-eight  and 
seventy-four  years. 

The  testicular  substance  of  the  aged  is  soft. 
For  fixing  and  hardening  I  have  used  a  mixture 
of  formol  and  Miiller's  fluid.  The  epithelial  ele- 
ments of  the  seminiferous  tubules  are,  as  we  shall 
see  very  brittle,  hence  to  obtain  sections  without 
any  air  spaces,  it  is  necessary  after  the  paraffin 
impregnation  to  cut  thick  section  of  15  to  20  /z. 

The  greater  part  of  the  old  testicles  is  not 
formed  by  tubules  but  by  epithelial  cords.  In 
numerous  places,  though  of  comparatively  small 
extent,  these  cords  with  the  exception  of  their 
internal  layer  have  undergone  transformation 
into  fibrous  connective  tissue. 

The  epithelial  cords  have  a  caliber  of  .12  mm. 
to  .15  mm.  They  are  separated  from  each  other 
by  septa  of  fibrillar  connective  tissue  with  abun- 
dant cells  and  mallet-shaped  nuclei.  The  septa 


APPENDIX  149 

are  continuous  from  one  tubule  to  another  with 
blood  vessels  placed  centrally.  They  contain  in- 
terstitial cells  filled  as  is  shown  by  Sudan  III, 
with  a  mass  of  fatty  granules.  I  have  not  been 
able  to  distinguish  a  true  basement  membrane  be- 
tween the  septa  and  the  epithelial  lining.  This 
latter  practically  fills  the  whole  cord,  for  the  cen- 
tral lumen  is  indicated  only  by  a  very  narrow 
cleft  or  perhaps  by  a  transparent  cytoplasmic 
layer  beneath  the  nuclei.  The  epithelial  lining  is 
.03  mm.  to  .05  mm.  thick,  and  consists  of  5  or  6 
layers  of  nucleated  cells.  The  nucleus  of  these 
cells  are  rounded.  In  the  external  layers  it  meas- 
ures 5  M  in  the  middle  it  is  5  to  6  /t  in  the  in- 
ternal layers  finally  it  attains  a  size  of  7  to  8  p. 
In  other  words,  the  cells  and  especially  their  nuclei 
increase  in  size  from  the  periphery  to  the  center 
of  the  cord.  The  cytoplasm  of  these  epithelial 
cells  is  formed  of  granular  filaments  arranged  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  constitute  a  dense  reticulum 
whose  narrow  meshes  are  very  poor  in  hyalo- 
plasm. The  granular  reticulum  stains  with 
hematoxylin,  and  the  hyaloplasm  with  acid 
fuchsine. 

As  regards  the  regions  which  seemingly  con- 
sist only  of  fibrous  tissue,  and  which  we  shall  call 
vesiculo- fibrous  islets,  they  likewise  possess  cords 
but  these  are  greatly  reduced  in  size  and  have  an 
entirely  different  structure.  There  are  in  fact 
some  cords  .02,  .03  or  .04  mm.  which  are  lined 
by  only  one  layer  of  cylindrical  cells  and  contain- 
ing a  central  slit ;  others  showing  2  or  3  layers  of 


150  APPENDIX 

epithelial  cells ;  and  finally  some,  especially  at  the 
periphery  of  the  islets,  which  show  all  stages  of 
transition  between  the  last  named  cords  and  the 
epithelial  cords  described  above.  Between  the 
cords  (of  the  islets)  there  is  found  a  dense  con- 
nective tissue  whose  fibrils  are  concentrically  dis- 
posed around  the  cords.  The  cells  of  this  tissue 
are  characterized  by  the  following  structure.  The 
nucleus  is  surrounded  by  a  zone  of  clear  cyto- 
plasm of  3  to  4  ^  while  the  peripheral  zone  is 
granular  and  reticulated.  The  same  vesicular 
cells  are  found  in  the  epithelial  lining  of  the  re- 
duced cords  of  the  fibro-vesicular  islets. 

These  vesiculo-fibrous  islets  develop  as  follows : 
In  the  regions  where  there  are  still  cords  with 
several  layers  of  epithelical  cells,  certain  cords 
show  in  their  external  layers,  nuclei  surrounded 
by  a  clear  perinuclear  zone  and  a  peripheral  zone 
which  is  becoming  fibrillar.  In  proportion  as 
this  transformation  continues  from  the  periphery 
to  the  center  of  the  cord  the  vesiculo-fibrous 
septum  thickens  and  the  epithelium  is  reduced  to 
a  double  or  single  layer.  When  this  process  ex- 
tends over  a  large  number  of  cords,  there  is 
formed  a  vesiculo-fibrous  islet  whose  cells  recall 
the  structure  of  the  vesicular  nodules  of  support- 
ing tissue,  as  for  instance  the  sessamoid  of  the 
tendon  of  Achilles  of  the  frog. 

To  sum  up,  in  the  testicle  of  the  aged  the  epithe- 
lium of  the  seminiferous  tubules  continues  to 
multiply,  producing  cellular  layers  with  large 
nuclei.  Not  only  does  this  lining  persist  to  trans- 


APPENDIX  151 

form  the  tubules  into  cords,  but  the  epithelial  cells 
become  vesicular  and  change,  progressing  from 
the  periphery  toward  the  center,  into  vesioulo- 
fibrous  tissue. 

Results  and  critique. — According  to  Bichat, 
Cruveilhier,  etc.,  the  testicle  becomes  soft  and 
shriveled  in  old  age.  According  to  others, 
Arthaud,  Coyne,  Riess,  etc.,  the  perivascular  and 
pericanalicular  connective  tissue  becomes  hyper- 
tropied,  strangles  and  chokes  the  epithelial 
tubules  which  degenerate.  Thus  the  testicle  be- 
comes indurated.  Still  others  maintain  that  the 
tubules  become  transformed  into  epithelial  cords, 
and  agree  with  Benda,  that  the  testicle  returns  to 
a  state  similar  to  that  of  early  youth,  as  though 
the  decline  of  age  were  in  reality  a  rejuvenation. 
The  existence  of  cords,  rather  than  tubules,  ex- 
plains the  failure  of  Follin  who  was  not  able  to 
inject  the  testicular  tubules  of  old  persons.  But 
certain  tubules  continue  to  produce  spermatozoa, 
since  Duplay,  and  later  Dieu,  has  found  them  in 
the  seminal  vesicles,  in  68  out  of  100  sexage- 
narians, 59  out  of  100  septagenarians,  and  48  out 
of  100  nonagenarians.  Desnos1  has  seen  them 
even  in  the  seminiferous  tubules  of  old  persons. 
He  has  moreover  described  the  thickening  of  the 
basement  membrane  as  well  as  of  the  epithelial 
cells  of  which  the  outer  are  granular  and 
polygonal,  the  middle  granular  and  spherical, 
and  the  inner  granular  and  having  numerous 
processes. 

*Annales  des  organes  g£nlto-urinalre,  1886,  p.  72. 


152  APPENDIX 

J.  Griffiths1  attributes  all  the  facts  which  he  had 
observed  in  the  old  testicles  to  degeneration  and 
chronic  inflammation.  The  single  layer  of  tall  or 
columnar  cells  which  he  had  seen  in  the  reduced 
tubules  corresponded  to  the  external  layer,  while 
the  more  internal  layers  were  undergoing  fatty 
degeneration.  The  intertubular  tissue  thickens 
and  the  basement  membrane  likewise  hyper- 
trophies. Griffiths  did  not  say  what  process 
effects  this  increase  in  thickness.  However,  he 
expressly  notes  that  the  fibrils  of  the  basement 
membrane  are  continuous  with  the  fibrils  of  the 
columnar  cells.  This  fact  proves,  in  my  opinion, 
that  the  basement  membrane  is  due  to  the  trans- 
formation of  the  epithelial  cells  into  connective 
tissue  elements. 

Griffiths  has  well  described  and  pictured  the 
clear  zone  which  encircles  the  nucleus  of  the 
epithelial  cells  lining  the  tubules  of  the  fibrous 
islets.  But  he  did  not  understand  its  significance. 
Many  years  ago  I  have  shown2  that  in  the  con- 
nective and  epithelial  tissues  the  cells  which  are 
in  nutritive  superactivity  or  in  process  of  trans- 
formation into  a  different  type  of  cell,  acquire  a 
clear  cytoplasm  around  the  nucleus  (vesicular 
cells).  Hence  I  can  not  accept  the  opinion  of 
Griffiths  who  concludes  that  these  epithelial  cells 
degenerate.  It  is  true  that  he  admits  the  per- 
sistence of  the  most  external  layer  whose  elements 

1  Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  t.  xxvii,  p.  474,  1893. 
sComptes  rendus  de  la   Soc.  de  Biologie,  1916,  p.  1117,  et 
Ibid.,  October  12,  1918,  p.  829. 


APPENDIX  153 

assume  a  columnar  shape.  In  my  opinion  it  is  the 
central  layer  which  undergoes  these  morpho- 
logical changes,  while  the  more  external  layers 
become  transformed  into  fibrous  tissue  in  which 
the  vesicular  cells  persist  (fibro-vesicular  tissue). 

With  the  progress  of  age  the  epithelial  cells  of 
the  testicle  become  enriched  with  hematoxylino- 
philic  filaments,  and  the  hyaloplasm  contained  in 
the  meshes  of  the  reticulum  becomes  firm  and  no 
more  undergoes  dissolution.  These  cells  do  not 
degenerate.  The  most  internal  ones  grow  to 
form  a  very  tall  layer,  while  the  middle  and  ex- 
ternal ones  develop  so  as  to  produce  fascicles  of 
connective  tissue.  At  the  same  time  the  nuclei  of 
these  various  layers  surround  themselves  with  a 
clear  cytoplasm  (vesicular  cells).  Far  from  con- 
sidering these  cellular  phenomena  as  signs  of  de- 
generation, I  see  in  them  the  manifestations  of 
a  progressive  evolution.  It  is  true  that  the  testic- 
ular  epithelium  forms  but  few  spermatozoa.  But 
it  is  actively  alive,  for  it  produces  epithelial  layers 
the  greater  part  of  which  develop  into  fibrous 
tissue. 

Conclusion. — With  the  progress  of  age,  the 
epithelium  of  most  seminiferous  tubules,  instead 
of  forming  free  elements,  builds  up  numerous 
cellular  layers  which  persist  and  the  greater  part 
of  which  develops  into  vesiculo-fibrous  tissue. 


154  APPENDIX 


Communication  of  M.  Ed.  Retterer  to  the 
Biological  Society 


SESSION  OF  NOVEMBEB  15,  1919 

CONDITIONS  WHICH  CAUSE  VAEIATION 

IN  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE 

TESTICULAR  EPITHELIUM 

Besides  the  grafted  testicles  and  the  testicles 
of  the  aged,  I  have  studied  the  epithelium  of  the 
seminiferous  tubules  in  young  adults  and  in  an 
ectopic  testicle. 

I.  Testicles  of  two  subjects  (twenty- five  and 
thirty  years)  killed. — Fixation  while  fresh  in 
picro-formol-acetic.  The  seminiferous  tubules 
have  a  caliber  which  varies  between  .12  mm.  and 
.15  mm.  The  parietal  cells  of  the  tubules  (sper- 
matogones)  not  only  have  a  large  nucleus  (9  to 
12  n),  but  their  cytoplasm  is  granular,  i.e.,  formed 
by  a  dense  reticulum  of  hematoxylinophilic  fila- 
ments. The  following  layers  (spermatocytes) 
show  a  slightly  smaller  nucleus,  a  clear  cytoplasm 
surrounding  the  nucleus  and  a  cortical  cytoplasm 
granular  like  that  of  the  spermatogones.  Ap- 
proaching the  inner  layers  the  granular  cytoplasm 
is  reduced  to  delicate  anastomosing  trabeculae. 
Finally  there  are  seen  the  masses  of  elements 
with  small  nuclei  (spermatids),  very  chromatic 
and  measuring  each  only  2.5  ^  or  3  /z.  They  are 


APPENDIX  155 

found  in  the  wide  meshes  bounded  by  the  granu- 
lar filaments,  and  are  still  surrounded  by  a  very 
clear  cytoplasm.  During  their  transformation 
into  spermatozoa,  the  spermatids  remain  em- 
bedded in  a  fluid  cytoplasm  which  undergoes  dis- 
solution and  sets  the  former  free. 

Thus  in  its  evolution,  starting  from  the  periph- 
ery of  the  tubule,  the  replete  and  densely 
granular  cytoplasm  acquires  a  clear  hyaloplasm 
which  accumulates  between  the  granular  anasto- 
mising  strands.  The  hyaloplasm  contained  in  the 
network  formed  by  the  latter  becomes  pitted  with 
vacuoles  around  the  spermatids  and  spermatozoa 
which  have  developed  at  the  expense  of  the 
nuclei  and  the  perinuclear  protoplasm.  The 
vacuoles  fuse  and  liquefy,  thus  setting  free  the 
spermatozoa.  But  these  continue  to  form  dis- 
tinct masses  on  account  of  the  hematoxylinophilic 
septa  which  project  from  the  reticulum  of  the 
testicular  cells.  Thus  the  epithelium  of  the  outer 
layers  of  the  seminiferous  tubules  becomes  com- 
posed of  a  densely  reticulated  protoplasm.  In 
the  middle  layers  the  meshes  enlarge  and  the 
hyaloplasm  which  fills  them  becomes  more  and 
more  abundant.  Finally  in  the  central  layers  the 
hyaloplasm  liquefies  and  sets  free  the  spermatids 
and  the  spermatozoa. 

II.  Ectopic  testicle  of  an  adult. — The  consist- 
ency and  general  aspect  of  this  testicle  would 
place  it  in  the  class  of  fibrous  testicles  of  the 
anatomo-pathologist.  The  albuginea  whose  thick- 
ness varies  between  .4  mm.  and  .5  mm.  is  continu- 


156  APPENDIX 

ous  at  numerous  places  with  a  layer  of  about 
1  mm.  whose  fabric,  likewise  fibrous,  seems  pitted 
with  narrow  irregular  slits.  Toward  the  center 
these  slits  are  continuous  with  ducts,  .10  to 
.15  mm.  in  diameter,  which  have  no  lumen,  being 
completely  filled.  Instead  of  having  an  ordinary 
epithelium  they  have  quite  a  different  structure, 
namely  a  reticulum  of  slender  filaments,  very 
hematoxylinophilic,  whose  wide  meshes  are  filled 
with  a  transparent  cytoplasm. 

The  tubules  or  ducts  of  the  central  portion  are 
surrounded  by  a  basement  membrance  and  filled 
with  epithelial  cells  disposed  in  1,  2  or  3  rows. 
It  almost  reminds  one  of  the  reticulated  epithe- 
lium of  the  enamel  organ.  Approaching  the  mid- 
dle layer  which  separates  the  central  portion  from 
the  albuginea,  the  peripheral  epithelial  cells  are 
seen  to  assume  the  characters  of  connective  tissue 
cells  which  are  continuous  with  the  fibrous  fabric 
without  the  interposition  of  a  basement  mem- 
brane. 

The  ectopic  testis  recalls  the  vesiculo-fibrous 
islets  which  characterize  the  testicle  of  the  aged. 
The  epithelium  of  the  central  tubules  is  in  process 
of  transformation  into  reticular  tissue.  In  the 
middle  layer  the  recticulated  tissue  with  filled 
meshes  undergoes  a  fibrous  evolution,  i.e.,  the 
hyaloplasm  produces  connective  tissue  fibrils. 

To  sum  up,  in  the  testicle  of  the  adult  in  sexual 
power,  the  granular  and  hematoxylinophilic 
cytoplasm  of  the  external  layers  differentiates  in 
the  middle  layer  into  a  peripheral  reticulum  and 


APPENDIX  157 

an  abundant  perinuclear  hyaloplasm.  This  latter 
becomes  more  and  more  liquid  in  the  central 
layers,  and  finally  liquefies  completely,  thus  set- 
ting free  the  spermatozoa.  On  the  contrary,  in 
the  ectopic  testicle,  as  in  that  of  the  old,  the  hyalo- 
plasm of  the  testicular  tubules  becomes  denser. 
Instead  of  disappearing  by  liquefaction,  it  pro- 
duces connective  tissue  fibrils,  which  transform 
the  organ  into  a  fibrous  mass.  In  the  normal 
adult  the  epithelial  cell  of  the  testicle  is  char- 
acterized by  the  production  of  an  abundant  hyalo- 
plasm which  ultimately  liquefies.  In  the  old  or 
ectopic  testicle  the  hyaloplasm  becomes  denser, 
hardens  and  produces  connective  tissue  fibrils. 

{General  Results. — In  the  embryo,  frjetus  and 
infant,  the  epithelium  of  the  testis  is  arranged  in 
the  form  of  cords,  .05  to  .06  mm.  wide,  in  the 
center  of  which  there  appear  gradually  empty 
spaces  due  to  the  dissolution  of  the  protoplasm. 
Already  at  this  period  we  distinguish  in  the  midst 
of  the  syncytium  composed  of  granular,  poorly 
delimited  cells,  large  cells  whose  perinuclear  cyto- 
plasm is  clear  (spermatocytes).  These  sperma- 
tocytes  become  numerous  towards  puberty  and 
their  nucleus  10  to  12  M  divides  giving  rise  to 
cells  with  a  progressively  clearer  cytoplasm.  The 
spermatocytes  continue  to  multiply,  each  giving 
rise  by  dividing  twice  to  four  little  cells  (sper- 
matids)  whose  nucleus  is  one-fourth  the  size  of 
that  of  the  original  cell.  In  order  to  set  free  the 
spermatids,  the  clear  cytoplasm  undergoes  dis- 
solution and  there  only  remain  some  hema- 


158  APPENDIX 

toxylinophilie  filaments  partitioning  the  luraen  of 
the  seminiferous  tubule.  The  mitoses  responsible 
for  the  proliferation  of  the  testicular  epithelium 
are  accompanied  by  the  formation  of  an  abundant 
protoplasm  which  in  conjunction  with  the  pro- 
duction of  the  cellular  elements,  contributes  to  the 
increase  in  caliber  of  the  seminiferous  tubules. 

With  age,  the  division  of  the  germinal  epithe- 
lium become  less  frequent.  The  cells  become  more 
granular  in  structure.  The  cytoplasm  undergoes 
but  a  very  limited  dissolution.  The  epithelial 
cells  arrange  themselves  in  several  layers  and  the 
lumen  is  reduced  to  a  very  narrow  slit  which  is 
at  times  filled  up  by  a  protoplasmic  layer.  In  this 
manner  the  seminiferous  tubule  changes  anew 
into  an  almost  solid  cord.  The  central  cells  divide 
less  and  less  into  small  elements,  the  spermatids 
and  spermatozoa  become  less  and  less  frequent. 
However,  the  testicular  epithelium  is  living  and 
continues  to  evolve,  though  in  a  different  way 
than  that  of  the  adult  in  sexual  power.  The 
epithelial  elements  become  enriched  with  hema- 
toxylinophilic  filaments  and  a  dense  hyaloplasm, 
and  beginning  at  the  external  layer  the  hyalo- 
plasm produces  connective  tissue  fibrils.  In  this 
way  the  epithelial  cords  diminish  in  caliber,  the 
intercordal  connective  tissue  increases  and  the 
testicle  is  partially  transformed  into  islets  of 
fibrous  tissue  containing  cells  with  clear  perinuc- 
lear  cytoplasm,  similar  to  those  seen  in  epithelial 
cells  which  are  in  process  of  transformation  into 
connective  tissue. 


APPENDIX  159 

In  the  ectopic  testicle  of  the  adult  the  testicular 
epithelium  shows  an  evolution  analagous  to  that 
of  the  old  testicle.  Arthaud  has  noted  this  fact  in 
1883,  and  has  studied  it  with  Monod  in  1887.  The 
connective  tissue  thickens  and  hardens  around 
the  blood  vessels  and  seminiferous  tubules  in 
both  the  ectopic  and  the  old  testicle. 

Felizet  and  Branca1  have  described  and  pic- 
tured (ectopic  testicles  of  9-  and  13-year-old  in- 
fants) a  connective  tissue  frame-work  very  ex- 
tended and  highly  developed,  and  containing 
infrequent  epithelial  tubules  in  a  rudimentary 
state.  This  would  be  the  primitive  morbid  con- 
dition of  the  ectopic  testicle.  But  the  text  is  silent 
on  the  following  point:  What  is  the  process 
which  causes  hypertrophy  of  the  connective  tissue 
and  atrophy  of  the  epithelium? 

In  the  testicular  grafts  the  epithelial  cells 
change  for  the  most  part  into  reticular  elements 
whose  meshes  at  first  filled  with  hyaloplasm  soon 
become  empty.  Instead  of  becoming  at  once 
fibrous  tissue,  the  epithelium  passes  through  a 
reticular  stage.  The  ultimate  dissolution  of  the 
hyaloplasm  produces,  in  my  opinion,  the  plasma 
whose  resorption  determines  the  libido  and  the 
potentia  coeundi  of  the  subject  bearing  the 
grafted  tissue  (previously  castrated).  In  the 
cryptorchids  and  the  aged  the  epithelial  cells 
change  directly  into  fibrous  tissue,  and  there  is 
formed  no  hyaloplasm  which  dissolves  and  is 

1  Journal  de  I'Anatomie,  1898,  1899,  p.  205  and  p.  329. 


160  APPENDIX 

absorbed.  Thus  the  fibrous  transformation  leads 
to  the  same  results  as  castration,  since  in  either 
case  both  the  external  and  internal  secretion  is 
suppressed. 


re i i 0070 


